Acting on Instinct
by Thoughtful Constellations
Summary: (Avengers) Agent Grace Marks and Tony Stark are back as the Avengers are assembled for the very first time to retrieve the Tesseract and protect the Earth from the Chitauri. As the situation becomes more serious, Grace and Tony are faced with the true definition of instinct and how it relates to them together. (Sequel to Survival Skills, Ironman fic/Healing Touch, Avengers fic)
1. Activated

**I told you guys I'd have it up tonight ;)**

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**For you new readers, if you want to hop on board, the original story is Survival Skills. You're introduced to Grace and Tony, and you'll read all about them in that. Next is Healing Touch, and then there's this one. Please check out the other stories!**

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Chapter 1

"EMERSON, GET DOWN NOW!"

Agent Grace Marks grabbed the collar of her partner and yanked hard, sending Agent Patrick Emerson flying down hard to the ground as bullets whizzed all around them. The overturned metal table was serving as a fine shield for them now, but it wouldn't be long before the two agents would have to find new shelter or be torn up into little bits. Agent Marks glowered at the rookie agent next to her and forced herself not to rip the young man up into shreds. He caught her glare, and he shrank under the force of the agent's hot amber eyes. She didn't say anything to him, instead calculating her next move.

Grace was usually called in for the most dangerous missions because of her unique skills and her high clearance, but she'd been called onto this one last minute. Agent Patrick Emerson had been assigned as a shadow to another agent, but that agent had just been landed on sick leave. Grace had been contacted as a last resort for the rookie agent, and here she was behind a metal table with bullets threatening to cut her to shreds at any second.

The mission was relatively simple: take down a group of terrorists that had been threatening SHIELD for several months now. Their location had finally been finalized, and Grace and Emerson had been shipped out. For the past three nights, they'd relentlessly stalked the group before cornering all eight of them in this warehouse. Emerson had knocked over a gun leaning against the wall, and the terrorists had begun firing. Grace's nerves were alight on fire as her survival skills were at their height. She was in full out survival mode, and she was not afraid to do whatever it took to get out of there alive.

A ringing in Grace's earpiece signaled that someone was calling her.

"What?" she snapped, answering the call. "Emerson, stay."

"But—" he protested.

"I will fuck you up," Grace promised before diving out from behind the table and behind a stack of sandbags against the wall that was hiding a ladder to the balcony.

"Agent Marks, this is Coulson," a smooth voice said into her ear. "Is this a bad time?"

"Hold on," Grace ordered sharply. Coulson had better be glad that it was he who'd called or else she would've ripped the caller to shreds. Her focus was tuned into the shooters who were still firing at the table. Poor Emerson was tightly compacted against the metal table as the bullets continued to clang off the sides of it. Quickly and stealthily, Grace crawled up the ladder and remained as hidden as she could while keeping all the targets in sight.

The eight terrorists were lined up in a row, making it perfectly convenient for her to use her newest weapon. She pressed a button on her shoulder that was attached to a belt that held tiny little rockets. The button acquired the targets, releasing a tiny beep in her ear when the targets had been locked. She pressed the button again, releasing the rockets. Within seconds, the eight men had been hit and were down. The firing stopped immediately, and she began repeating her calming phrase over and over in her head: _you're ok, you're not in danger, you're not going to die, you're ok, you're not in danger, you're not going to die, you're ok, you're not in danger, you're not going to die_.

Her nerves began to cool down, relief flooding her body as she steadied her breathing. Emerson was still tightly pressed against the table, his eyes wide even though no one else was left firing. Grace knew she should probably go down and make sure he was ok, but she needed to let her nerves continue to cool before she tried attacking the ladder.

"I'm good now," she said into her earpiece.

"Target down?" Coulson asked.

"Target down," Grace repeated.

"The Avengers Initiative is being activated," he said smoothly. Grace's breathing slowed as she realized what the man was saying.

"What's happened?" she asked breathlessly.

"I'm not authorized to say over the phone, but we need you back at Headquarters immediately. We have to get the rest of the team together, and we need them all ready," he replied.

"It's bad, huh?" Grace asked.

"Well, we're going to have Tony join the team," Coulson admitted reluctantly. Grace's mouth slid into a half-smirk at the mention of her billionaire boyfriend Tony Stark. He'd originally been under scrutiny as a member of the team, but then Fury had decided that he wanted the genius as a consultant. Now Coulson was saying that Tony was going to be a part of the team. Despite how happy—though he'd never admit it—Tony would be to be a part of the Avengers Initiative, she knew it had to be bad if SHIELD were going to accept Tony as a part of it.

"Huh, pretty bad," she said.

"Come back and process in and debrief and all that when you get back, but I'll come to Stark Tower and give you and Tony a run down on what's happening, alright?" he said efficiently.

"Alright, sounds good. We'll be heading back ASAP." She hung up the phone and glanced down at the rookie agent. She felt steady enough to make it down the ladder, so she descended, landing on the ground with an easy thump when she skipped the last few rungs. She crossed to Agent Emerson and kept walking.

"Come on, Emerson, we have a flight out," she said. She could hear him scrambling to his feet as he caught up with her.

"That was it?" he asked.

"Yep. That's it," she replied. "For now."

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Tony disliked whenever Grace was gone on a mission because he worried like fuck about her. He was more than aware of the fact that Grace could handle herself; she was more skilled and capable than he even knew, and he knew that he didn't know all of what she could do. It was almost embarrassing for him to admit that after two years of being with her, he'd never seen her fight. Sure, he'd sparred with her a couple of times, but after she'd flipped him over her shoulder and slammed him so hard into the ground that he'd broken a rib, she refused to spar with him anymore. That'd been about a year ago, and she still wouldn't spar with him.

So Tony was relieved as he landed on the roof of his beautiful new Stark Tower that Grace was home and waiting in the tower for him, holding a glass of wine and looking completely relaxed in a pair of black shorts and a loose purple button down shirt. She'd flown in two days ago and had been at SHIELD all day dealing with in-processing shit that was boring and not worth anyone's time, and the second day she'd slept all day to recharge.

Whenever she came back from a particularly rough mission, she was on edge and jumpy for a good week or so until she calmed down. She also went on a research kick, absorbing any bit of information that she could, just so she could store it in her brain for future reference. He hated seeing her act super paranoid because she was in a safe place where no one could hurt her. No matter how many times he told her that, she still remained on edge.

Thankfully, this mission must've been relatively simple because she was reclining easily with her glass of wine, looking very well-rested with a glow about her. He had no idea about the call she'd received from Agent Coulson in the middle of her mission, and he had no idea about anything to do with the future plans of the Avengers Initiative. She'd specifically kept those pieces of information to herself because she knew that Tony would be, well, Tony whenever he heard about it.

Today, only moments ago, Tony'd connected the new Stark Tower with clean energy, and they were celebrating with a bottle of wine. He let his robotics remove his suit as he walked in.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line," Jarvis said smoothly.

"I'm not in," Tony coolly replied. "I'm actually out."

He looked around him at the night sky. Technically, he wasn't lying; he wasn't _inside_, per se. He was outside.

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting," Jarvis said, almost sounding a little bit worried. Mentally, Tony rolled his eyes. Agent Coulson from SHIELD was the last person in the world that he wanted to deal with. However, the person that he _most_ wanted to deal with was sitting inside waiting for him, and he desperately wanted to spend alone time with her.

"Grow a spine, Jarvis. I got a date." He smirked and walked into the tower as the last pieces of his suit were removed.

"Levels are holding steady. I think," Grace declared as Tony walked in.

"Of course they are. I was directly involved," Tony remarked. "Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?"

"Well, I really wouldn't know, now, would I?" she retorted with an easy smirk, watching her boyfriend as he came closer to her.

"What do you mean? All this…came from you," he said.

"No," she corrected gently with a smile. "All this came from _that_." She tapped his arc reactor in the middle of his chest lightly with her index finger. She was aware of the amused, adoring gaze he was giving her. He shrugged slightly.

"Give yourself some credit. Please," he urged genuinely, reaching out and holding her shoulders, rubbing them with his hands. "Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself…12% of the credit."

"12%," Grace repeated in disbelief, raising her eyebrows at him.

"An argument can be made for 15," Tony protested.

"12%? My baby?" she asked as she crossed away from him, leaving him looking after her adorably. Really, she did deserve all the credit. It'd been her idea to get into clean energy. She'd been studying the arc reactor and all it could do over his shoulder for the past two years, and she'd suggested to him to have the tower run on clean energy, opening all kinds of new doors for Stark Industries.

"Well, I _did _do all the heavy lifting," Tony said, bringing the credit back to himself. "Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

He followed behind Grace as she went to the wine bottle and ice bucket, pulling it out, signaling to Tony that she was ready for a real celebration. Damn, she looked good, amber eyes and all.

"Oh," she said to humor him.

"My private elevator—"

"You mean, _our_ elevator," she interrupted as she poured the wine.

"—it was teeming with sweaty workmen," Tony finished, not about to let Grace win with her interruption. "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?

He sat down in front of her, gazing up at her. It was moments like these that he wondered if she actually existed. Her long brown hair was down and flowing perfectly over her shoulders, and she was so goddamn lovely in this lighting. He took the wine glass that she was holding out to him.

"It's not gonna be that subtle," she replied suggestively, making him gulp.

"I'll tell you what," he said, beginning a negotiation. "The next building is going to say Stark on the tower."

She frowned.

"Tony, _this _tower says Stark," she said. Tony nodded.

"I know," he said. "But it'll be _your _tower."

He enjoyed the reaction on Grace's face. She was usually few on reactions, thanks to her initial survival skills, so when she reacted largely to something, he loved every second of it. He'd mentioned getting married several times to Grace in the past year, the first being when she'd gotten so severely injured from a fall off a building during a mission last year. She was the one for him; he never doubted it, and he knew he never would.

"Tony," she said quietly with a smile on her face. She loved him to bits, and it showed on her face. He winked at her.

"Tony, it'll say it on the _lease_," she said with a smirk. He rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Call your mom. Can you bunk over?" he asked, then he winced. "Sorry, forgot. You hate your mom."

Grace stuck her tongue out at him, forgiving him his slip up.

"Sir, the telephone," Jarvis interrupted insistently. The cheerful expression on Tony's face slipped away as the moment was interrupted by his artificial intelligence. Dammit, he could never get a moment of peace.

"I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden," Jarvis continued.

"Mr. Stark, we need to talk," Agent Coulson said over the phone, sounding very irritated. Grace kept a calm, nonplussed expression on her face so Tony wouldn't be suspicious of her. The moment had come where Coulson was going to talk to them about the Avengers Initiative, and she couldn't help thinking that Coulson couldn't have picked a more inconvenient time.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark," Tony said, gazing into the phone seriously, his voice smooth and professional. "Please leave a message."

"This is urgent," Coulson said, sounding even more annoyed.

"Then leave it urgently," Tony replied, impatience surging through his voice.

The elevator slid open to reveal Agent Phil Coulson standing inside with the phone pressed to his ear, looking relatively smug.

"Security breach," Tony loudly announced. "It's on you." Grace rolled her eyes.

"Mr. Stark. Grace," Coulson said by way of greeting.

"Phil! Come in," Grace greeted pleasantly to her friend and co-worker.

"'Phil'?" Tony muttered.

"I can't stay," Coulson said apologetically.

"His first name is 'Agent,'" Tony interrupted suspiciously, crossing behind Grace to see the fellow SHIELD agent.

"Come on in. We're celebrating," Grace said smoothly.

"Which is why he can't stay," Tony finished. Grace shot him a look to shut the fuck up, and he pretended he didn't see it, as usual.

"We need the two of you to look this over as soon as possible," Coulson said, cutting right to the chase. Grace loved that about him; she hated beating around the bush, and Coulson rarely did that. The best way to say something was to dive right into it, she thought.

"I don't like being handed things," Tony said, sounding mildly strained.

"That's fine because I love to be handed things, so let's trade." Grace interrupted, cutting him off and handing her wine glass to Coulson while taking the black file from him. She handed it to Tony, knowing that Tony would take it from her because she was the only one he allowed to hand him things aside from Pepper, while taking his wine glass.

"Thank you," she said cheerfully and took a sip.

"Why aren't you looking at this?" he asked.

"I already know most of what's in it," she replied with a shrug. He frowned and turned back to Coulson.

"Official consulting hours are between 8-5 every other Thursday," he said snarkily while somehow managing to look somewhat innocent.

"This isn't a consultation," Coulson said, glancing at Grace who still wore her expressionless face.

"It's about the Avengers," Grace said, adopting a bored tone as if it were a topic she discussed every day. Tony walked away, pulling out the contents of the black file. He was pleasantly surprised to see that it was his tech that was being used to hold the information of the file.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought," he said. "And I didn't even qualify. Apparently, I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others." He turned questioningly over his shoulder as he listed off the descriptions as he approached his work station.

"This is true," Grace mumbled loud enough so that Tony could hear her.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said, clearly looking as though he had other places to be and couldn't be kept there any longer.

"Whatever. Agent Marks, got a second?" Tony called absentmindedly, holding out his hand for Grace to come to him.

"'Scuse me," she said apologetically to Coulson, hurrying over to Tony's side.

"You know, I thought we were having a moment," he said, slightly preoccupied as he typed in a bunch of shit Grace didn't understand.

"I was having 12% of a moment," she deadpanned in response. He looked up in defeat and gave her a little smirk.

"This is serious, Tony," she said quietly, lowering her voice. "Phil called me and told me that something had happened."

"When'd he call you?"

"Oh, during the mission when I was being shot at."

"He should get the award for worst timing," Tony quipped. "Thanks for not mentioning anything to me. Why is he 'Phil'?"

"He's a co-worker. Show me what this is," she said, gesturing back to the tech in front of her.

"This is…" Tony paused as he touched the screen, "this."

The air in front of them was covered in holograms. Grace was used to seeing all of this, but it never ceased to amaze her. Tony always had the best ideas in his head, and she loved watching it come to life. She never knew how he could fit all of those thoughts and inventions in his thick skull.

She recognized the files of her fellow teammates in the Avengers Initiative. Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Agent Romanoff…all their faces and information popped out at her. She was familiar with most of the stuff in the files because she'd been in on the Avengers Initiative back when it was in its tentative stages two years ago. Nonetheless, it would never kill her to go over the information. Besides, she had to help Tony study, though God knew he could have all of it memorized in ten minutes, maybe less.

"We have homework," she said. "We have a lot of homework."

"We don't have to," Tony said, turning to her, desperately wanting to continue where they'd left off. "What if we didn't."

"If we didn't?" she asked.

"Yeah," he returned.

"You mean when we've finished?" she corrected. He nodded very slightly. She grinned and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "When we're finished, I'll blindfold you and get on my knees and take you hot and ready in my mouth until you come."

His eyes were wide as saucers, and a disbelieving grin was plastered on his face.

"Square deal. Let's get to work," he said quickly. She smiled at him and leaned forward, kissing him firmly on the mouth, letting the clean, familiar scent of Tony Stark surround her and pull her closer to him.

"I'm gonna walk Phil out," she said. "You get a head start. You need it more than I do."

"Um, pardon me, Princess?" Tony asked, lifting his eyebrows.

"I already know most of this stuff," she said with a shrug. "Did you forget that I'm a SHIELD agent?"

"No, you only remind me, um, every five minutes and every time you get injured on a mission," he retorted. She pointed at him.

"Study. I'll be back." She turned towards Coulson and smiled at him. "Hey, what about the cellist? Is that still a thing?"

"She moved back to Portland," Coulson replied with a wry grin.

"What? Why?" Grace asked, and then the elevators slid shut, denying Tony from anymore access to their conversation, but he wasn't listening anymore. The blue cube called the Tesseract had caught his attention. He held the hologram of it in his hand and furrowed his eyebrows. Yep. He had a shit ton of homework.


	2. Homework

**Shoutouts to ILoveThee, hockeygurl39, and Uruvia for the reviews! Keep giving me reviews, guys =)**

**The next chapter will be the helicarrier, and we'll get to see some familiar faces i.e. Natasha Romanoff, Dr. Banner, Steve Rogers, and Emma. (If you don't know who Emma is, check out Healing Touch!)**

**Please, please, please let me know what you think of the chapter so I'll get a feel for the kinds of chapters that y'all want. Thank you so much for reading!**

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Chapter 2

"Ugh, Captain Stone Age is part of this?" Tony asked as he examined Steve Rogers's file.

"Yes, _Steve _was asked to be a part of the Avengers Initiative," Grace calmly corrected. Tony's dark eyes glanced at her, showing annoyance in them. The light of the holograms illuminated her face, and she was closely studying each and every file, even though she was familiar with all of the information already. Tony had to admire her work ethic; she was always willing to go above and beyond to learn what she needed to in order to complete her mission successfully.

"Steve? He's Steve now? Jesus, what's with you and all these other men being on a first name basis? Next you'll be telling me stories of the good old days with Nick before he became director of SHIELD," he mumbled, scanning over the information on Steve Rogers. Really, he was more than informed on the young captain since he'd grown up hearing all about Steve Rogers and what a great guy he was. _Thanks, Dad_, he thought sarcastically.

"Tony, you know Steve and I have that whole Serum thing in common, and we talk a lot," Grace protested with a casual shrug. Tony narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. He knew more than anyone that he was a jealous person, but now just wasn't the time to press something so trivial when he had all of this work to look over. He groaned as he pulled up Natasha's file.

"The redheaded traitor who imposter-ed me," he announced.

"'Imposter-ed' is still not a word," Grace pointed out gently. Tony paused and gave her a hard look.

"I'll invent it," he said evenly. She shook her head and pressed her lips together in such a way that she looked amused.

"You can't invent words; inventing words isn't the same as inventing suits," she said.

"So contact the people who invent words and tell them I'll donate $5 million to get 'imposter-ed' in the dictionary," he replied.

"You can't do that; that's impossible," Grace protested. He shook his head firmly at her.

"Um, it is possible. If I put my mind to it, I can do anything I want to and make anything possible. Isn't that parents say? I wouldn't know because my parents never said those things to me," he quipped. Grace smirked.

"Why are you asking me? It's not like my parents said that to me in between injections," she said, grinning at him.

"Goddamn, we are perfect together. Come here, give me a smooch," he said while flashing her an adorable smile. She took a few steps closer to him and pressed her lips to his.

"Mmm, I love me some sugar," he said and winked. He turned his attention back to the hologram files in front of him, intently studying each piece of information and memorizing it. So far, he knew that some foreign cube shit called the Tesseract had been taken by a motherfucking alien named Loki. Tony was a man of science; a cube that had endless energy from another planet just didn't quite sit right with him. He believed things he could see, things that were supported by solid evidence.

"Guess we're not alone in the universe anymore, huh?" he said out loud, musing more to himself than anyone else.

"Were we ever?" Grace returned.

"Touche, my dear. Touche. Is this the kind of shit that SHIELD usually deals with? Aliens?" he asked with a frown plastered on his face.

"Well, I know that there was an alien encounter two years ago, same time as when I was monitoring you. I don't know too much about the case since I wasn't assigned to it, but I do know that Loki was the one causing shit for us back then," she said, bringing up Loki's file. "Yeah, that's the bastard."

Tony leaned over her shoulder and skimmed over what was documented on Loki. Yeah, he looked like a sketchy son of a bitch to Tony. His frown deepened as he continued reading and simultaneously taking a mental picture of the file. Whoever would've thought he'd be dealing with aliens? If anyone had told him four years ago that he'd be trying to steal back a giant blue energy cube from an alien, he would've laughed in that person's face. Four years ago was when Tony was trying to kick terrorist ass, not alien ass. Two very separate kinds of ass.

"So he must be dangerous if you've been assigned to help take back the Tesseract," Tony concluded.

"The Avengers are supposed to be sent in whenever it's too dangerous so, yeah, you could assume that he's dangerous," Grace replied. "Besides, he has one of my co-workers."

"What?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he got a hold of Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. Hypnotized him or something with that. Did you not read the mission overview?" she asked, sounding more than a little irritable.

"No, I got distracted by Captain Decrepit."

"_Steve_."

"Right. Steve. Hey, is he still with that nurse?"

"Emma?"

"Yeah, her. Are they still together?"

"Yeah, they are. Why?"

"Think they've boned yet?" Tony looked slyly at her with a smirk on his face. He expected her to swat him and tell him to behave, but she had a look on her face that made him think twice. He raised his eyebrows and turned to face her, folding his arms across his chest with a renewed interest.

"You know something I don't," he said accusingly. Instantly, Grace's infamous blank expression crossed her face, and he knew that he'd hit home with something. He clapped his hands triumphantly and pointed at her.

"You know something I don't! Come on, enlighten me. We've been studying this shit for hours. He still making charges on the V-card, or did he lose it?" Tony sidled over next to Grace and playfully hip-checked her. She was steady on her feet as usual, and she didn't fall, instead standing her ground and giving him her blank stare. He let out a sigh of exasperation as she surveyed him with her light amber eyes.

"Seriously, throw me a bone—pun intended—I'm dying," he pleaded.

"Steve's a very private man, Tony," Grace answered finally, a diplomatic tone in her voice.

"Again with the first name thing. Sweetheart, you tell me everything. What's so different about this?" he asked innocently, clearly using any excuse to get her to talk. She looked at him out of the corners of her eyes before reverting them back to the screen in front of her.

"You're supposed to be studying. We have a lot to do," she said.

"Your work ethic is a real buzz kill, you know that?" Tony muttered. "I'm bored. I know enough to suffice. Alien Loki stole the Tesseract from SHIELD because he wants to fuck shit up. In the process of stealing said cube, he managed to hypnotize Bird Brain and a scientist who's familiar with the Tesseract. You, me, Captain Iceberg, Redheaded Traitor, Alien Brother of Crazy Alien Shithead, and Dr. Banner have been called upon to bring back the goddamn cube before bad things happen."

"Huh, not bad," Grace murmured.

"See, I know exactly what I'm doing," he said with a smug smirk.

"Why does everyone have a nickname except for Dr. Banner?" she asked with a frown marring her face.

"He's the only one aside from me out of this bunch who doesn't seem to be batshit crazy," Tony replied as if that were the obvious answer.

"You're saying that a man who turns into a giant green thing whenever he gets mad is more sane than I am?" she returned in disbelief.

"Hon, you can walk into a room and within the first 10 seconds of being there come up with 1,000 escape routes," Tony answered in a logic tone. She tilted her head to the side, her frown deepening, and her hair slid over her shoulder in a dark curtain. Her amber eyes narrowed as she faced him.

"That makes me more crazy than the guy who TURNS INTO A GIANT GREEN MONSTER when he gets mad?" she repeated with emphasis.

"You can also smell poison in food," Tony pointed out bluntly.

"It's useful! It's so I don't get killed by poison!" she protested, throwing her hands up in the air. "Ugh, whatever. What's my nickname?"

"Nickname?"

"Yeah, you gave everyone a nickname except for me and you. What's my nickname?" she asked and crossed over to him. Her arms snaked around his waist, and her body was gently pressed against his. As he looked down at her, he was mesmerized by her. She could go from being professional and completely business-minded to being all couple-like and PDA-y. He wrapped his arms back around her waist and leaned against the edge of his desk, supporting her against him.

"Deadpan," he said flatly. Her amber eyes widened, but then she laughed.

"Good one," she murmured closely, her lips only a few inches away from his. She noticed his dark brown eyes dart down to her mouth and then back to her eyes. He was always so easy to read, and that was one of the things she loved about him. She was damn good at picking up on people's thoughts, far better than the average Joe, thanks to her heightened survival instinct, so to her, Tony's thoughts were as easy to read as if they'd been written down in a book.

"Of course it's a good one. I said it. I'm hilarious," he murmured back. "You know, we can be done for the night. We've been studying for what, four, five hours now? Besides, Jarvis has all this information uploaded into his system, and he can run it off to me anytime I need him to."

"You're sure you have a good grasp on everything?" Grace asked carefully. He rolled his eyes.

"Gee, Mom, I did my homework," he quipped. "Come on. I'm tired. You're tired. Jarvis is tired. Right, Jarvis?"

"I feel quite energized, sir," the artificial intelligence responded smartly. Tony's eyes darkened, and he directed his gaze to the ceiling in annoyance.

"I said, _Jarvis is tired. Right, Jarvis?_" he repeated.

"Of course, sir. I was wrong the first time you asked me. I feel very tired," Jarvis answered in a bored tone. Tony smiled back at Grace with satisfaction and pulled her closer to him, feeling the gentle, easy curves of her body and how they fit so perfectly against him.

"What do you say, Agent? We grab some shut eye," he said softly.

"Don't I owe you something?" Grace asked, lifting her eyebrows.

"Oh, God, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but can I take a rain check on that?" Tony winced as the words came out of his mouth. Grace's look of shock was enough to last him for a lifetime as far as her reactions went. He'd never seen her look more stunned or amazed as she did at that moment. Confused, she opened her mouth to say something and then closed it.

"Are you feeling ok?" she asked.

"Hon, I'm feeling fine. I'm just—God I can't believe I'm about to admit this—I'm kind of in a cuddling mood. It's 4 in the morning, and we're both tired, and the anticipation will get me going," he finished with a wink. Grace nodded, impressed.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day," she said. "By the way, we're heading out on the helicarrier tomorrow."

"Helicarrier?" Tony repeated.

"Yeah, we're all assembling on the helicarrier to begin searching for Loki. We get to meet our teammates," she said cheerfully.

"I'll meet you all separately," Tony said. She frowned.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"I have to bring my suit. I'm not going to haul it around like a suitcase. God, that's embarrassing. I'd rather meet you all there and fly there myself," he said. She nodded, accepting the answer.

"Fine. Then _I _head out on the helicarrier tomorrow."

"So you have an early start tomorrow. You need sleep. Bedtime?"

"Bedtime." Grace grabbed his hand and led them to their room where they collapsed into bed after stripping down to their underclothing, too tired to do anything else. As the lights went off, and Tony's arms went around her, she was comforted by the light of his arc reactor. She remembered the first time that they had slept together, not as in sex, but as in actually physically sleeping. He'd been self-conscious about the light and had thought that she wouldn't like it, but she'd liked it even then. It'd been a reminder to her that someone was there watching out for her.

She hadn't said anything to Tony, but she was afraid about the mission that awaited her and the rest of their super team. This upcoming mission was the most dangerous mission she'd ever been placed on, and she knew the personal risks that it set for her. Even though SHIELD had spent years getting her survival instinct under control so that she didn't rip everyone around her into shreds when she was in survival mode, she was well aware of the fact that she could lose control at any moment if she really felt that she were in that much danger. This mission held that potential for her.

Grace knew about all the people she'd injured so badly she'd never killed them when SHIELD had first gotten a hold of her. It'd been right after her time in South America, where she'd been living in survival mode for years. Everything had been a threat to her. It was only a matter of time before her control slipped, and she would revert back to that high level of self-preservation she'd had when she'd been brought into SHIELD as their newest agent, when everything was a threat again.

This mission was dangerous, and so was Agent Grace Marks.


	3. Survival Hulk

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Chapter 3

Grace really did love her job, and the sentiment ran through her as she stood on the deck of the helicarrier, taking in everything around her. The helicarrier was large and more than adequately equipped with jets, weapons, everything loaded to the max. She'd already deposited her things in the room that she was going to be sharing with Tony—Coulson had pulled some strings—and she was now looking around. As she looked around, she could see that, of course, Tony had designed the helicarrier; that was obvious. The tech was as up to date as his latest suit, and everything about the helicarrier screamed Stark Industries. Grace couldn't help feeling a twinge of pride as she looked around, knowing that her boyfriend had been the one to design such a useful ship.

She checked her cell phone to see if she'd missed any calls or texts from Tony, but she hadn't. She slipped her phone back into her pocket after making sure that her phone was set on vibrate. He was supposed to be meeting them sometime before take off, and she hadn't heard anything from him since she'd left early that morning.

She didn't expect Tony to be on time; God knew he rarely was, but this was something he needed to take seriously, and she knew she was being hopelessly optimistic by thinking he'd be there when he was supposed to be. After a year of insisting that her Verizon iPhones were pieces of shit, she'd finally allowed him to give her one of his totally Starked out phones that had only the best of the best features on it. Only Tony would be able to invent a phone that could get signal all the way out at sea like she was now.

SHIELD agents in their uniforms rushed past her; thankfully, she didn't have to put her typical black SHIELD uniform on yet, so she was dressed in black jeans, a mint green cami, and a black cardigan thrown over it. Casual and comfortable, the way Grace liked to dress when she travelled.

"What do you think?" a voice came from behind her on the left. She turned and looked, unsurprised due to the fact she'd felt the presence there, smiling when she saw her friend Agent Natasha Romanoff standing there with her arms folded.

"It's great," Grace replied. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long, only ten minutes or so," Natasha answered. "Captain Rogers is supposed to be landing any second now, and Dr. Banner is wandering around here somewhere already. I wish he'd just stay in one place because we all know what'll happen if he brings out 'the other guy,' he likes to call him."

"I think he'll be ok. I think he's more than aware of the risks of being here, and if he agreed to it, he can probably handle it," Grace said. Natasha shrugged.

"Who knows. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Besides, if he brings out 'the other guy,' and that puts you in survival mode, that's going to be a hell of a clean up."

"Huh. Touche."

"Hey, look, I think that's the jet with Coulson and Captain Rogers," Natasha said, gesturing towards the jet that had just landed. "Let's go give our salutations. Word on the street is Captain Rogers is gorgeous."

"Oh, trust me," Grace responded with a wink. "He is."

Grace and Natasha quickly crossed over to the jet. Sure enough, Steve Rogers and Agent Coulson were getting off the jet. When Steve saw Grace, he immediately smiled at the sight of something familiar.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers. Captain, you're already familiar with Agent Marks," Coulson said.

"Ma'am," Steve said, giving Natasha a polite nod.

"Hi," Natasha said.

"Hello, Grace." Steve smiled warmly at the amber-eyed agent.

"Hi, Steve. How have you been?" Grace pleasantly asked. She and Steve had remained in contact since their initial meeting a year ago when Steve had woken up from his ice-coma. In fact, just two weeks before, she and the captain had grabbed a quick lunch together after running into each other at the SHIELD hospital where he'd been visiting nurse and girlfriend Emma Carroll.

"I've been well, thank you. Yourself?"

"Just excellent. How's Emma?"

"She's well. Actually, she's on the helicarrier somewhere right now. She's one of the nurses that SHIELD assigned here."

"Really? I haven't seen her yet. I'll have to go say hi," Grace said brightly about the blonde nurse who had so quickly captured Steve's heart. Emma was a positive, upbeat person who was wonderful to be around, and she'd done wonders for Steve. All of Steve's technology skills had come from Emma's steady patience over the past year.

"They need you on the bridge," Natasha interrupted, directing her statement to Coulson. "They're starting the face-trace."

"See you there," Coulson mumbled and brushed past Natasha. This situation with the Tesseract was bad, and Grace could tell just by looking at Coulson. She'd never seen him so abrupt or urgent before, and it was only a bad sign. Without a doubt, SHIELD needed to get the Tesseract back, or something bad was going to happen. She could feel Natasha's eyes on her, but she didn't make eye contact with the agent.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha said smoothly to Captain Rogers as she and Grace began to walk away. Steve quickly followed them.

"I thought Coulson was going to swoon," Grace teased with a smirk. Steve gave a tiny smile in response as his gaze swept across the deck of the helicarrier, surveying all of the action happening around him.

"Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" Natasha asked. Steve looked back at her with a confused expression marring his strong, handsome face.

"Trading cards?" he repeated with an amused smile. Grace nodded, returning his amused grin. It always took him by surprise to see her show any emotion on her face; he'd gotten so used to seeing her with that trademark blank look that it took him off guard whenever she wore anything different.

"They're vintage. He's very proud," she said.

"Dr. Banner!" Steve suddenly shouted, directing both agents' attention to the nervous looking man who was trying to avoid being jostled around by SHIELD agents running by and making sure that everything was in the right place before take off. Grace had never met the infamous Dr. Banner before, so she was interested to see the man whom everyone seemed so afraid of.

She also had something in common with the brilliant scientist. Whenever she felt threatened, she went into survival mode, a mindset that allowed her to do anything and everything to escape from a situation alive. In the past, she'd done plenty of things that she didn't want to think about because of her heightened sense of self-preservation. Dr. Banner, on the other hand, went into Hulk mode whenever he was angry. He was a bit more…disastrous to deal with than Grace was, hence why everyone tiptoed around him more than they did around her.

"Uh, yeah, hi," Dr. Banner said, sounding almost grateful to see something that wasn't swarming past him as he crossed over to shake Steve's extended hand. He was an attractive man who was professionally dressed in a brown suit and purple dress shirt, his glasses perched on his nose. He gave a polite smile to Steve.

"They told me you'd be coming," Banner said, giving Steve a onceover. Natasha's phone rang, and she quickly exchanged a look with Grace before stepping off to the side to answer it.

"Word is, you can find the cube," Steve said. Grace also appreciated that quality about Steve: he got right down to business.

"Is…that the only word on me?" Dr. Banner wryly grinned and looked nervously, as if he were afraid that someone were about to attack him. As Grace watched him carefully, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The poor guy was paranoid of anything setting him off, though she couldn't blame him. If she reacted as dramatically to anything that threatened her, she'd probably be the same way, she reasoned to herself.

"It's the only word I care about," Steve sincerely replied. Banner nodded, assessing the young man in front of him. It was clear that he wasn't entirely sure what to make of the young Army captain, but he certainly appreciated what the young man had to say.

"It must be strange for you, all of this," Banner said and gestured to their surroundings. Steve's eye caught a number of young agents doing physical training running by, and he grinned.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," he said.

"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's…going to get a little hard to breathe," Grace spoke up, catching Natasha's gesture to her as she got clearance on the helicarrier's takeoff. Dr. Banner's eyes landed on Grace, and he squinted. He tilted his head as his eyes scanned over her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. Dr. Banner," he said, extending a hand cautiously towards her. She smiled warmly and took his hand, giving it a firm shake.

"Agent Grace Marks," she said.

"She's like a Survival Hulk," Natasha said, suddenly appearing next to Grace now that she'd hung up.

"I have a heightened sense of survival instincts," Grace corrected. Banner grinned ironically.

"And I have a heightened anger management problem," he replied.

"_Flight crew, secure the deck_," a voice over the PA system rang out, jolting Grace back to reality. The sounds of the engines beginning to rev was loud and mechanical. Steve watched in amazement while also frowning in confusion.

"Is this a submarine?" he asked in disbelief. The men walked to the edge of the helicarrier to look over. Grace exchanged a look with Natasha.

"Really? They want _me _in a submerged, pressurized metal container?" Banner asked with a tone of slight amusement creeping back into his voice. At least he could be somewhat humorous about his plight, Grace thought to herself.

"This isn't safe," Natasha murmured under her breath to Grace.

"Dr. Banner?" Grace returned. Natasha nodded without taking her eyes off of the doctor. The helicarrier began to lift out of the water, signifying to the two very confused men that the helicarrier was not, indeed, a submarine but an aircraft. Grace couldn't help feeling that warm sense of pride again as the helicarrier did its thing.

"No, no, this is _much _worse!" Banner declared, sounding almost delighted as he looked at the ocean beginning to slowly grow smaller beneath him.

"Let's go in! It won't take much time before all the oxygen's sucked up!" Grace shouted over the roar of the engines. She and Natasha turned back towards the door and jogged inside, followed by a still fascinated Dr. Banner and Steve Rogers.

"We've got to meet up with Fury," Grace said to Natasha, who nodded back firmly in response.

"Is everyone here?" Natasha asked. "Is Tony here?"

"I don't think he is. He was supposed to meet up with us," Grace answered, meriting a look of exasperation from Natasha. She didn't want to deal with another lecture about Tony and his irresponsible habits because she knew about them more than anyone else did.

"It's easier and quicker for him to just wear the suit and fly to meet us," she explained. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"It's easier and quicker for him to have a big, dramatic entrance with the suit," she quipped. Despite herself, Grace grinned because she knew that Natasha had a point. Tony never liked doing anything subtle; that was for sure. He was always the first one to make a mountain out of a molehill when it was completely unnecessary. Nonetheless, Grace had to admit it made life with him interesting if nothing else, to say the least.

She felt a tiny pull deep in her chest as she thought about him. Whenever she was on a mission and had to be away from him, she missed the hell out of him. This time, however, he was on the same mission that she was. They were on a mission _together_, and that thought blew Grace's mind. In a way, it made her feel self-conscious. Tony had never seen her in action before, and she wasn't sure if she were ready for him to see her when she was in the heat of survival mode. Reason wasn't something that crossed her mind whenever she was plotting the best way to escape a situation that was going to kill her.

On the other hand, she was looking forward to see what _he _could do. She'd seen the clips of him fighting numerous times, and she'd even witnessed some of it when she'd monitored him two years ago when he'd been attacked on the track at Monaco. Oh, and how could she forget when she'd seen him get his ass kicked by Rhodey at his own birthday party? So yes, she'd seen him fight before, but she'd never seen him on a mission when he had to take down a target. It was going to be a mission of firsts for the both of them.

For the millionth time—or so it felt—she checked her cell phone to see if she had any missed calls from him. Well, that officially marked him as late, and she was going to have a hell of a time explaining it to Fury. Mentally, she cursed her boyfriend in her head for not knowing how to be on time. Jesus, where _was _he?

She, Natasha, Steve, and Banner walked into the main heart of the helicarrier: the control center. The control center was teeming with agents who were trained to sit at computers and, well, control shit. They all had headsets on as they communicated with each other about the status of the engines and all that other boring shit that Grace didn't care to listen to.

"We're at level, sir," Agent Maria Hill said. Grace caught sight of her approaching Fury.

"Good," Fury replied in a voice that could possibly be considered pleasant. Well, everything was relative, Grace thought with a smirk. "Let's vanish."

She knew then that the reflective panels were being activated so that they couldn't be spotted from the ground. Tony loved stealth mode, so of course he would've designed it into the helicarrier. She wondered if he even knew that his helicarrier was what SHIELD was using to pursue this Loki asshole. Then again, Tony knew everything about SHIELD because he was always fucking hacking into their system.

"Gentlemen," Fury greeted as he turned around and faced all of them. Grace felt Natasha's elbow nudge her, and she suppressed a smile. Fury considered his women to be men, and really, Grace didn't give a shit that she was put in the gentlemen category. She caught Steve handing Fury a $10 bill, and she wondered what kind of bet he'd lost this time. Emma. She had to find Emma at some point and catch up with the nurse. If she knew Steve at all, she knew that Steve was dying to get the ok to go find her.

"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury said, shaking Dr. Banner's hand.

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind."

"Where are you with that?" Dr. Banner put his hands in his pockets and casually wandered away, though he was still listening. He looked around the inside of the helicarrier, his mind racing a thousand miles a minute. For a moment, he reminded Grace a lot of Tony because she could always see the wheels working in Tony's head whenever he was trying to plan something.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops…it's connected to a satellite; it's eyes and ears for us," Coulson piped up. Natasha had knelt by an agent who was studying Clint's profile. Grace knew Natasha well, and she could see how worried the redheaded agent was about her partner.

"That's still not gonna find them in time," she said. Natasha glanced at her with a concerned frown, but she didn't say anything. Grace knew that Natasha understood all of this as much as she did.

"You're have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Dr. Banner had removed his jacket, and Grace could see the wheels working double time in his mind as he plotted his plan of attack.

"How many are there?" Fury asked in response.

"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Dr. Banner asked. Damn. Grace was already impressed with the scientist. Tony always went on and on about Dr. Banner's work, and now she had to admit that she knew why.

"Agent Marks, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Fury called out. Grace nodded and immediately sprang into action.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys," she deadpanned as she led the way. She didn't wait for him to follow her; she knew he was behind her because she could sense him. Her senses were always at full alert. She knew where everything was in relation to her at all times. Tony hadn't been kidding when he said that she could smell poison in food. In fact, there'd been a time when she'd been able to smell it in her food on one of her missions, and she'd been able to track down the target through the chef. Not only had she saved herself, she'd completed her mission. Her senses had been like that ever since she'd received the injection.

She knew where support posts were in buildings because she could sense them. She could hear all kinds of things and see all sorts of little details that no one else could, and countless times these abilities had saved her life; that was their purpose. No one could ever sneak up on her because she'd know. Tony had tried thousands of times, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to understand that she'd be able to pick up on it.

"Here we are," she said pleasantly as they reached the lab. She opened the door and stalked in, Dr. Banner following her. Stepping to the side, she scrutinized his face for a reaction. As he looked around, she observed how he moved and the way he lightly touched the table and the boards around him.

"It's nice," he said, sounding impressed. "This is all top of the line equipment. Stark tech?"

Grace smiled at the mention of Tony, and she nodded. "Of course."

Dr. Banner squinted at her and observed her through his glasses. She didn't feel uncomfortable at all because she was used to being looked at so closely; SHIELD wasn't exactly subtle about anything they did. Ironically, like Tony, whom they so frequently clashed with due to that same quality.

"Wait," he said slowly. "Grace Marks. You're with Tony Stark. You're a SHIELD agent?"

"Yes, sir, I am," Grace answered with a smile. "Undercover work isn't usually my specialty, but it seems to be what I've done 24/7 for the past two years."

"I knew I recognized you from somewhere. All the papers and magazines with Tony Stark. Never would've pegged you for a SHIELD agent," he replied. Grace shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm full of surprises, Dr. Are you set up here? Do you need anything else?" she asked. He shook his head slowly, still examining her. Folding his arms across his chest, he frowned and looked her directly in the eyes.

"So you have an other guy?" he asked. His voice was almost shy, but he was mainly curious. Grace paused but nodded and shrugged at the same time. It was always complicated to explain to someone who didn't quite understand her problem, but she had a feeling that Dr. Banner would know exactly what she was talking to about.

"Not exactly. Whenever I feel threatened, I go into what I call survival mode. Whenever I get like that, it's very hard to get me out of it because I'll do anything under the sun to survive. I'll kill people, blow things up, anything," she said with a shrug.

"Only that?" Dr. Banner quipped. Grace smiled thinly at him, her face unreadable.

"There's a reason I'm the most dangerous agent SHIELD has," she replied.

"Then why are people so relaxed around you?" he asked.

"Years of control."

"Yeah, I can't be controlled." Banner gave her a heart-wrenching smile, but she shook her head firmly. Her face was cool and calm, not betraying a single thought that was racing through her mind.

"After 90 agents landed in critical care, they weren't entirely sure I could learn to control it, either," she said.

"Survival Hulk," Dr. Banner mused, seemingly off in another world as he mulled the name over in his mind. He looked back at her and nodded. "I like it. That should be your call name."

"I mean, I don't turn into a giant, different colored monster, but you know, win some lose some," she replied smartly. "I'll leave you to get acquainted with the lab, Dr. If you have any problems, don't hesitate to let one of us know, ok?"

"Thank you, Agent Marks," Banner said, and then he became absorbed in the lab. Grace walked out and into the hall, checking her phone again. After seeing there were no missed messages, she heaved a sigh.

"Dammit, Tony," she mumbled to herself. If she hadn't heard from him, she'd give him a call at the end of the day to see what his excuse was. As she walked down the hall to go find Emma and catch up with her, she tried to ignore the twinge deep in her heart that she felt whenever she had no idea how to reach the man who made technology accessible from everywhere.


	4. Stuttgart

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Chapter 4

Tony winced as he rolled his shoulders back. He'd been hard at work adding last minute modifications to his most recent suit, barely taking a break to eat and use the bathroom when absolutely necessary. It'd occurred to him right after he'd started working on his modifications that he wouldn't make the helicarrier take off on time, but it didn't faze him because he loved making a dramatic entrance, and this was the perfect excuse to do so.

"Does this look like it can kick some alien ass, Jarvis?" Tony called out.

"Yes, sir. I can practically see it happening," the artificial intelligence replied. Briefly, Tony wondered if Jarvis were getting smart with him, but he was in too good of a mood to press the issue and argue with a computer. It was too late for that anyway, and damn, was he tired. Rubbing roughly, he pressed his knuckles into the muscle between his neck and shoulder to get it to listen up, releasing a groan of relief as he did so. His ears were still ringing from the welding that he'd just finished.

"Sir, Agent Marks is calling," Jarvis announced. Tony froze. Grace. Oh, shit. _Grace_. In the midst of revamping his suit, he'd completely forgotten about calling Grace and telling her that he was going to be late. He'd told her right as she was leaving that he'd call her to let her know when he was on the way to meet up with the rest of the team.

"Uh, put her through," he said, the tiniest bit of fear edging into his voice. "Hello?"

"Tony?" Grace's voice filled the room, and he closed his eyes. For a moment, it was as if she were there with him instead of God knew where on some helicarrier that he'd designed. He could picture her face. Her amber eyes would be filled with concern, and her forehead would be wrinkled as she worried about where he'd been and why he was late.

"Hi, honey," he said. He knew that she loved being called honey, and well, yes, he was hoping that calling her that would make her soften up a little bit and not be so mad at him. Even if he hadn't been a genius, he would've been able to figure out that she was mad at him.

"Where are you?" she asked, seeming to ignore her favorite endearment. He mentally sighed.

"I know I'm late. I'm sorry," he immediately blurted. "I got stuck making readjustments on the suit."

"Readjustments? That take all day?"

"Yeah, I'd kind of like to be prepared for this Loki dude. I don't exactly know what I'm getting into with him," Tony said bluntly. For a second, he wondered if he'd even said the last part out loud. It didn't go without saying that Tony Stark was not the kind of man who admitted when he didn't feel prepared for something. He loved being in control of the situation, and if he _wasn't _in control, he could at least _pretend _that he was. There was no pretending this time. Grace was quiet on the other end, but he knew she was still there, the sound of her gentle breathing filling the line.

"Hello?" Tony called out. He heard her sigh come over the phone.

"I'm trying to find a valid reason to be mad at you for being late," she said. Tony grinned, and a chuckle slipped from his lips. Again, he could picture the conflicted look on her face as she knew that she'd lost but was struggling to find anything to hold onto so she could come out on top.

"Well, you might as well quit because I won, and we both know it," he said lightheartedly. "Fury been giving you trouble about it?"

"Of course he has. It's Fury. You know he's going to give me as much shit as he can about you," Grace answered.

"Two years later, and he still hasn't forgiven me for distracting you with my wildly handsome looks while you were supposed to be on the job," he said with a nostalgic sigh. "Ah, it only seems like yesterday that you were standing in my living room swooning."

"Please, I don't think I've ever swooned in my life."

"There's a first time for everything."

"Such as showing up for things on time?"

"Not fair."

"Not fair? Not fair how?"

"It's not fair because you're not being fair."

"For someone who's a genius, you really have trouble using logic sometimes."

"Um, it's not called logic. It's called the truth." His answer was met by a soft laugh from Grace, and he smiled.

"Whatever you say, hotshot. Hey, Emma's one of the nurses on the helicarrier. I saw her earlier and stopped and chatted with her for a bit," Grace said.

"Did she tell you if she and Jack Dawson bone?" he asked.

"Jack Dawson?" Grace asked in confusion. "Wait, please tell me that you're not calling Steve Jack Dawson because Jack freezes to death in the water."

"Bingo! You are so smart, Agent Marks. I think I'm in love with you," he quipped.

"Lucky for you, the feeling's mutual," Grace murmured into the phone, and he could hear her smile. "When are you going to be here?"

"Why, missing me already?"

"Something like that. Also the fact that Fury keeps demanding to know where you are and what's taking so long is a factor."

"I can't say for sure, but it shouldn't be long."

"Tony," she heaved a sigh, "please don't use extraneous time."

"Nice SAT word."

"Tony, I'm serious."

"Ok, ok, I'll be there as soon as I possibly can be. I promise."

"I'm holding you to that. Hey, I'm gonna go to sleep now. I miss you."

"I miss you, too. I love you, ok?"

"I love you, ok. Good night."

"Sleep well. I'll be there soon. Good night."

When Jarvis disconnected the call between the two, Tony felt more relaxed than he had all day. For some strange reason, Agent Grace Marks had that effect on him. It always interested him to watch other people's reactions around her because he was aware of the fact that she wasn't your average looking person. That being said, Grace wasn't an unattractive woman. In fact, Grace Marks was the opposite. She was beautiful, but she looked, well, robotic because she kept her emotions so closed off inside of her as one of her defense mechanisms. It always amused him to see how other people reacted to her because to him, she was the most relaxing thing he would ever experience, even more so than weed. Not that he'd smoked weed before or anything…

"Sir, it appears that the face-trace was successful, and Loki has been found," Jarvis announced, grabbing Tony's attention. Tony immediately leapt to his feet and rushed to one of his screens, looking at the screen on the helicarrier that Jarvis had hacked, revealing Loki's location.

"Huh, looks like I'll be seeing Agent Marks a lot sooner than I thought," he said as he scanned over the information. "Jarvis, are we ready to fly?"

"Yes, sir. You have a full charge, and by the time you arrive, you'll only be at 89% battery life," Jarvis answered.

"Excellent. Where is it exactly that we're flying to?"

"Germany."

"I hope you like bratwurst, Jarvis."

"I love it, sir."

"So what are we waiting for? Let's fly."

* * *

It always happened whenever Grace was trying to go to sleep. She was so damn used to drifting off to sleep and then being woken up because something was happening that it shouldn't have surprised her, but her eyes instantly snapped open the second she realized that someone was about to knock on the door to her room. This was one of those moments where she hated how in tune her senses were because she just wanted some fucking sleep already.

She also knew that it was Natasha at the door because she could smell the redheaded agent from so far away. Also, Natasha's knock was recognizable. Grace hurried out of bed and answered the door. Natasha was dressed in her SHIELD uniform just like Grace was, the two having changed shortly after having gotten acquainted with the helicarrier and their teammates.

"We've found Loki. Come on. Captain Rogers is tackling this one. You and I are in charge of the transporting aircraft," Natasha said, flicking her short red hair back. Without a second thought, Grace shut the door and fell into step beside Natasha.

"Where are we headed?" she asked.

"Stuttgart, Germany."

"Of all places."

"I know, right?"

And so that was how Grace found herself, moments later, at the control panels of a SHIELD jet, ready to drop Steve below to confront this crazy bastard Loki. She turned around in her seat and smirked at Steve, who was now decked out in his standard Captain America uniform. She'd never seen him in it before—actually, to be fair, she'd never seen him in his uniform in the modern era. She'd seen plenty of pictures of him donning the uniform from when he was in his native 1940s era, but she grinned at him, and he caught her eye.

"Lookin' good, Steve!" she called back to him. "Want me to snap a picture and send it to Em? I'm sure she'd love to have this on her phone."

"That's ok!" Steve shouted back to her. "She doesn't need a picture on her phone."

"Oh, ten bucks says she'll want one when she sees you in it."

"I've already lost $10 today. I don't think I can afford another," he said, an easy amused smirk coming across his own face. Grace felt a sense of self-satisfaction as she realized that Steve Rogers was smirking. Who ever would've thought that the all-American, good-natured, pure Captain America knew how to smirk?

"How many minutes out are we?" she asked, turning back to Natasha. Her fellow agent's head was bent over the control panel as her bright eyes scanned over the readings.

"About two minutes, it looks like," she replied. Her mouth was twisted to the side and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Natasha was always lovely, no matter what time of day or night it was. It was no wonder that Clint had fallen in love with her. Clint and Natasha were a force to be reckoned with, that was for sure, and it was obvious that Natasha was worried sick about her partner.

Grace knew Natasha fairly well—at least as well as Natasha allowed someone to get to know her, other than Clint—and she knew that Natasha was going crazy. The redhead was usually calm and cool, just like Grace, rarely showing what she was truly feeling. Unlike Grace, however, she didn't wear a blank face; she wore a spectrum of emotions to keep the enemy off her scent. It was a talent, Grace had to say that much. And as she glanced over at her friend and teammate, she could feel Natasha's anxiety radiating off of her. She didn't blame Natasha at all, though. She knew she would be acting the same way if it were Tony in Loki's hands.

It was then that she spotted the huge crowd of people and Loki. The alien was dressed in black and green, though it was hard to make out too much detail in the dark of the night. He had a giant crown/helmet thing on his head that made him look like a bug. She smirked as the thought crossed her mind.

"Steve, prepare to drop!" she called to the spangly captain.

"Oh, shit, looks like some guy's standing up to him," Natasha mumbled.

"Steve, you might wanna drop now. Like, _now_!" Grace shouted.

"Roger that," Steve answered shortly, and he'd leapt out the back of the aircraft.

"Thank God we were at a low speed," she murmured as she saw him land on the ground safely, just in time to save the old man from being zapped by Loki's staff or whatever the fuck it was that Loki was going to do to him.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha said sharply into the PA system that was being broadcast as she pressed a button that lowered one of the guns into position. In response, Loki shot something out of his scepter up at the aircraft.

"Fuck," Grace hissed, pulling up on the controls and steering the aircraft out of the way just in time, though they'd barely missed it. "Jesus, this fucker's a maniac. Keep an eye on Steve."

"Think Clint's nearby?" Natasha asked quietly. Grace looked at her, but Natasha wouldn't look back, instead keeping her eyes fixed on the action on the ground. Natasha was guarding herself, hiding any real traces of emotion that she was feeling. She was pretending to be totally focused on Loki and Steve, but it was clear that part of her mind was elsewhere, wherever Clint was. Grace blinked, wondering how best to answer Natasha's question. One half of her told her to be a good friend and say something vague and comforting, but the other half wouldn't let her do it. Grace wasn't the kind of person to tell a lie to make someone else feel better, and she wasn't about to start doing it now.

"I don't know," she replied. "Hey, hey, hey, bring the aircraft in closer. Guy's all over the place." That was an understatement. Loki didn't stay in one spot when he fought. He tried to keep Steve at a distance so that he could blast him with that damned scepter. She frowned in concentration, keeping the gun trained on Loki.

"If we blast the gun, it could hit Steve," she said out loud. Natasha nodded in response, examining alternative solutions.

"Agent Romanoff. You miss me?" a voice came over the PA system that was familiar, and Grace's eyes widened as a just as familiar AC/DC song came blasting through the stereo. The screen in front of the two agents read PA SYSTEM OVERRIDE. There was only one person it could be, and a wide smile spread onto Grace's face as she recognized both the song and the voice.

"Hello to you, too," she said out loud.

"Agent Marks, always a pleasure," Tony answered smoothly. She could feel Natasha sigh next to her and suppress an eyeroll. She didn't look over at her fellow agent, knowing how Natasha wasn't crazy about Tony.

"What'd I tell you?" Natasha mumbled. "Big, dramatic entrance."

Whether Tony heard it or not, no indication was given as he soared past the aircraft, a blazing hot blur of red and yellow metal. The familiar colors always made Grace think of home because they made her think of Tony, and to her, Tony was home and safety and everything warm that those words were supposed to bring to you.

Before Tony even landed, he fired his repulsors into Loki, causing the strange man to fly backwards, his body slamming hard against a set of concrete stairs. Tony landed solidly but roughly on the ground, leaving broken brick beneath his feet as he landed in his typical one-knee kneel. He stood up slowly, surveying the man in front of him for any visible potential weapon. One hand got his repulsor ready, the other arm produced a gun of sorts, and then the shoulders were well armed with what appeared to be rockets similar to the ones that Grace had used on her mission when she'd been called in for this one.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," he quipped smartly. Loki had nowhere to go and could do nothing without being blown to smithereens by Tony, so he sat there, staring up at the Iron Man while Steve got to his feet and moved over.

"Here we go," Grace murmured under her breath. This was the moment she'd been dreading for the past year. Tony and Steve were not going to get along; they'd never met before, but she knew both of them, and she knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant. For starters, Tony's upbringing had been filled with overzealous praises of Captain Rogers and how he'd been the perfect man. Tony's father hadn't exactly been nurturing towards the little boy, always busy on other projects, a lot of them having to do with the search for Captain America. To say that Tony didn't have fond feelings towards Captain America due to his memories of the man was an understatement.

"Jesus Christ, did you see that?" Natasha snapped. "His clothes just fucking morphed."

"I'll be damned," Grace replied. Natasha hadn't been kidding. Right in front of their eyes, the green and black elaborate clothing that Loki had been wearing seemed to have morphed off the guy, and now he was wearing something much simpler though not entirely Earth-like.

"Good move," Tony said in an approving voice as all of his weapons lowered. Steve looked him up and down, not sure what to make of the man who was his former friend's son. If anything, it was weird as hell seeing Tony Stark in person and knowing that he'd been best buds with his dad.

"Mr. Stark," he said respectfully, a tiny smidge of apprehension in his voice, by way of introduction.

"Captain," Tony returned in the same tone.

"Lower it down," Natasha ordered Grace. The two agents carefully maneuvered the aircraft down so that Tony and Steve could transport the alien onboard. Once onboard the aircraft, he was properly handcuffed and restrained so that he couldn't try any funny business on them. Grace scrutinized him as he sat there; he looked pitiful and sullen, like an alley cat. She was so busy studying the man that she almost didn't notice Tony walking up to her.

"Agent Marks," he said easily. His faceplate was up, and when she looked at him, she was met with that all-knowing smirk of his. She couldn't help but smile at him.

"Anthony," she replied.

"Careful, Agent. My full name isn't to be used lightly," he said. She smirked at him.

"Who said I was using it lightly. Come here and kiss me, asshole."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Tony moved in closer to her and kissed her. He'd kissed her billions of times in the past two years, and yet, every kiss was as if it were their first kiss. He chastised himself for how damned poetic that thought was. Nonetheless, all the feelings were true, and he couldn't chastise himself for that. He pulled back and winked at her.

"We'll catch up. Fly the aircraft. The redheaded traitor is glaring at me. Hi, Agent Romanoff!" he shouted, waving to her. She gave him a deadpan stare and then turned to face forward again. He rolled his eyes and glanced down at Grace. "She's improving her deadpan. Must be spending too much time around you."

"Hush. Go watch Loki. I have to fly this thing," Grace said, but she said it with a smile, and she went back to her seat.

"Is everything ok and in order?" Natasha asked as Grace settled into her seat. Grace nodded, buckling herself in and returning her headphones to her ears.

"Yeah, everything's great," she said. If only she knew that it would be a matter of time before she'd be regretting those words.


	5. Thunder

**Shoutouts to ILoveThee, Uruvia, and WickedlyMinx for the reviews! Thank you so much for reviewing! Again, please keep leaving me feedback because it's so helpful to hear what you guys think about the story. If you like something, if you don't like something, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I don't know what y'all want until you say so, and I gladly welcome that ;)**

**I had a question about why Stemma hasn't really been in this story. This isn't a split fic between Stemma and Trace like Healing Touch was. This fic is going to be told solely from Grace and Tony's point of view; they're the central characters. However, Stemma will still be a part of it. (I know I said I was going to bring Emma into this chapter, and I didn't. Oops!) I promise you that Emma WILL have a part in this; she just isn't going to be a main character like she was in Healing Touch. This is a Tony/Grace story. Sorry if that disappoints anyone!**

**Again, please review! They're so helpful to receive, so let me know what you think of this chapter =)**

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Chapter 5

Turbulent weather didn't bother Grace at all; she'd been trained to fly through worse, so when the sky darkened, and the thunder started, she didn't feel any fear at all. She felt confident, competent, and capable as she navigated the aircraft through the sky back to the helicarrier, where Loki would then be transported to a cell and held there until he released information on the whereabouts of the Tesseract.

Grace could read people as easily as open book, and what she could read about Loki, she didn't like. She didn't like it at all. Loki had long black hair, and he had a smug look on his face; it was clear that he felt he knew more than everyone around him did, and she was afraid that what he knew could possibly destroy her, SHIELD, or even the goddamn universe for all that she knew. His eyes were dark and sullen, two qualities that did not provide for a very good time. Even though she wasn't looking at him, she could feel his presence behind her as she helped pilot the aircraft.

"Is he saying anything?" Fury asked, his voice transferring over the radio and into the headphones that connected the communication between the helicarrier, Natasha, and herself.

"Not a word," she replied quietly, hoping that the dangerous, strange man wouldn't hear her.

"Just get him here. We're low on time," Fury returned, sounding impatient and worried all at the same time. Grace exchanged a brief glance with Natasha. If they hadn't known that their situation was bad before, they certainly knew it now. Fury rarely sounded worried about anything, so the fact that he sounded concerned was enough to make them feel concerned, though Natasha's concern was solely about Clint. Grace knew the redhead well enough to know that Natasha didn't give a shit about herself. Only Clint.

"I don't like it," Steve mumbled quietly. A dreadful foreboding set over Grace as she realized that the young, handsome Army captain was not speaking to her but Tony. She sent mental messages to the billionaire to be nice; she knew that she was being optimistic in hoping that Tony would be civil to the young man, but hey, a girl could dream. Her amber eyes flicked backwards. Tony was standing at complete ease as he faced Loki. His helmet was off, and he was looking bored, the latter not being a very good sign. Whenever Tony Stark was bored, he would try to entertain himself in the worst ways, and that fact basically promised he would attempt to get a rise out of Steve, much to Grace's chagrin.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked, just as quietly.

"I don't remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop," Steve replied, a look of distrust crossing his face. Whether his distrust was towards Loki or Tony, Grace wasn't sure. She glanced over at Natasha, knowing that she was paying attention, but she didn't look back at her.

"Still, you are pretty spry…for an older fellow. What's your thing, Pilates?" Tony asked, though his tone showed that he was disinterested. Grace's stomach sank when she heard his question. So it began. Tony could feel her heated glare, but he chose to ignore it.

"What?" Steve asked, sounding annoyed.

"It's like calisthenics," Tony explained in a bored tone. "You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle." He stared at Steve as he said the latter part of the sentence, daring the young man to challenge him.

"Hey, Tony, is everything ok back there?" Grace called back casually. She caught Tony's eyes as he gazed back at her with that bored expression telling her that he wasn't sorry for the question because he didn't enjoy where he was. She shot him a fiery warning look, but he seemed nonplussed by it.

"Yep, everything's perfect," he replied and returned his easy gaze back to Steve. The blonde soldier was staring at him with obvious distaste, though really, Tony was used to being looked at in such a manner. Not many people who knew him well liked him, but whatever, that was their own problem. At the end of the day he had billions of dollars, a suit that could beat the shit out of bad guys, and a beautiful woman who loved him and wasn't afraid to be herself around him. In all honesty, that was all he needed. What he definitely didn't need was the approval of a washed up superhero that his dad had been mildly obsessed with.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," Steve said. His tone was casual, though the implication of what he was saying ran deep. Tony didn't give two shits, though, and he inwardly rolled his eyes. He could practically hear Grace's reprimand in his head, but now wasn't the time to deal with that. He'd had enough of the overly righteous dude in front of him, and he'd only spent what, 10 minutes around the guy? He couldn't believe that this was the man that Grace spent so much time talking to and about. Narrowing his eyes, he smirked at Steve.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you," he retorted sharply. Without warning, thunder and lightning erupted across the sky, lighting up the vast empty space in front of Grace and Natasha. Natasha's red head jerked up as she looked around her, studying the sky.

"Where's this coming from?" she asked, more of a rhetorical question than anything.

"What's the matter? Are you scared of a little lightning?" Steve asked in a mocking tone. Grace couldn't see what was happening behind her, but she had the sense that Steve's question had been directed towards Loki. She felt the reassuring hand of Tony Stark on her shoulder. Technically, it was the _iron _hand of Iron Man, but whatever. It was all semantics, and she appreciated the comforting gesture.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," the smooth voice of Loki replied. A chill ran down Grace's back at the sound of his voice, and she fought the urge to turn around and stare at him. He was one that she would have to wear her blank face for at all times, not letting any guard down at all. She wondered if the alien had noticed her kissing Tony earlier, and she hoped that he hadn't; the last thing she needed was Loki realizing that she had a weakness, that weakness being Tony.

Within seconds, a thud sounded on the roof of the aircraft. As per usual, it didn't startle Grace. She'd sensed it only seconds before it'd happened, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Natasha jump at the sound. Tony immediately tensed, impulsively prepared to battle whatever it was that had landed on the small jet. Without a word, he grabbed his helmet and put it on, the eyes of the mask lighting up in that way they did, signaling that he was ready to go. Adrenaline raced through his veins as he walked to the back of the jet and pressed a button, causing the back of the jet to open.

"What are you doing?" Steve's alarmed voice shouted out.

"Tony?" Grace shouted.

"What the fuck," Natasha snapped. She'd turned around and caught sight of the man with long blonde hair. He was dressed in similar garb to Loki, and he looked pissed as fuck. Even that was an understatement. Grace ripped her gaze away from the sky in front of her just in time to see Tony raise his hand to blast this new stranger with his repulsor, but a hammer smashed into his chest, knocking him backwards.

"Tony!" Grace cried, struggling from her seat to stand up. The blonde man was Thor, and he had grabbed his brother Loki and disappeared before she could demand to know what the fuck he was planning on doing with his evil little brother. She rushed to Tony's side, but he brushed her off, his mind on other things.

"And now there's that guy," he remarked in an irritated tone.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha shouted back from her position at the controls, which she was now operating by herself since Grace had removed herself to go check on Tony.

"That guy's a friendly?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"Loki's brother!" Grace shouted back over the rush of the wind as it slapped her across her face. She thanked herself for having her long brown hair braided in a single plait down her back; she could only imagine what it would be doing in this kind of wind. Reaching out, she grabbed Tony's iron arm and tightened her grasp. He stopped and looked back at her. Even though she couldn't see his physical brown eyes, she knew that he was dying to get out there and kick Asgardian ass. Reluctantly, she let his arm go.

"Doesn't matter," Tony said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

As much as Tony would never admit it, he was a professional when it came to kicking ass. The last time Grace had seen him like this had been in Monaco when he'd confronted Vanko in his cell, shortly after the maniac had tried to slaughter him on the racetrack of the Grand Prix. He'd looked so tall and strong then, just as he did now. A swell of pride ran through her, but it was short-lived. There were more important matters to deal with instead of how proud she was of her boyfriend.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Steve protested.

"I have a plan. Attack." And with that, Tony had jumped out the back of the jet and was going after Loki and Thor. Grace's amber eyes flicked over to check in with Steve. Frustration filled the young soldier's blue eyes, an expression that most people wore whenever they dealt with Tony, herself included.

"Shall we, Captain?" she asked as she swiftly marched over to the parachute packs. She tossed one to Steve and began putting one on herself.

"Grace, you're not going after them!" Natasha shouted. Grace's eyes met Natasha's green ones.

"You're piloting solo until I get back," she said. Her voice was firm and showed that she wasn't fucking around. She could see Natasha struggling with whether or not to protest, but she knew that Natasha knew her well enough to know that no matter what she said, Grace wasn't going to back down. Unease and disapproval crossed Natasha's face, but she didn't say anything. Grace could feel her own adrenaline begin to spike as she moved towards the back of the jet, Steve following behind her.

"Are you sure about this, Grace?" Steve asked her, his voice nearly being drowned out by the sound of the plane's engines. She grinned at him and nodded.

"Ready, Captain?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"I'd sit this one out, Cap!" Natasha yelled.

"I don't see how I can," Steve answered.

"These guys come from legend. They're basically gods," she replied.

"There's only one god, ma'am," Steve said respectfully. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

And then they were falling through the sky. Parachuting was something that Grace had never enjoyed; she loathed the feeling of plummeting towards the Earth at high speeds. She'd only been in free fall for several seconds, and she could already feel her nerves beginning to light up. Her survival instinct was threatening to take over, but she couldn't just yet. Using all the skills that SHIELD had given her since she'd begun working for them, she forced herself to stay calm, and she focused on her breathing. Her hand was on the string, ready to pull the parachute when it was necessary.

She didn't know how long she was in the air. Time seemed to fly from her whenever she was on a mission, and that's what this felt like: a mission. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours in her mind. As she neared the ground, she estimated how much time was left, and she pulled it. She and Steve landed safely, and she allowed herself to send a quick thanks to her dead father for injecting her with the Serum, thereby making it so that she'd survived the parachute jump. Her stomach was turning, but she pushed the nausea out of her mind. Instead, she allowed her senses to take over. A deep tug pulled her off to the right.

"They're this way," she snapped as Steve staggered over towards her. He was used to jumping, and he only looked mildly disoriented, though still focused. The sounds of trees smashing and repulsors being fired caused her great alarm, and she frowned. Steve could hear the same sounds, but he wasn't sure where they were coming from.

"Come on!" she shouted and picked up into a run. She ran at full speed, sprinting past trees, ducking under branches, and jumping over fallen logs in the trees as she ran. Steve was behind her, as signified by the thuds and thumps that followed her. Her nerves were beginning to light up as she raced towards a situation that she didn't know whether it would be threatening or not. That was part of the fun of dangerous situations, she thought to herself, noticing the irony of it all.

Time seemed to drag but pass all at the same time. At one point, she had to switch directions as the pull in her told her that the men had travelled to another part of the forest.

"Fuck," she hissed, not losing her pace.

"Grace!" Steve shouted. Normally, she would've slowed down and waited for him, but fear struck her heart as she heard the sounds of trees being smashed by something large. Was Tony beating the shit out of Thor, or was Thor beating the shit out of Tony? There wasn't really a choice that she liked, and she only hoped that they were showing off their wonderful fighting skills in a friendly way instead of showing them off by fighting each other.

She saw them up ahead of her, and her speed increased.

"Hey! Grace, get down!" Steve shouted, and he flung his shield. Grace sensed it and moved out of the way just in time. The shield flying onto the scene made their presence known, causing the two men to stop and look at the newcomers.

"This is ridiculous," Grace snapped, slowing down as she reached them. Her amber eyes were blazing in anger, though she wasn't sure if she were more angry at Tony or Thor; at this point, all she knew was that she was fucking pissed, and she wasn't going to sit by and watch these two arrogant assholes fight each other. It was clear that that was what they'd been doing by Thor's heavy breathing and the brand new gashes on Tony's suit. She wished that Tony had the decency to look ashamed of himself, but he didn't, and she inwardly rolled her eyes to herself.

"Go back to the ship, woman. This is no place for you," Thor announced firmly. Grace narrowed her fiery eyes at him. Oh, he didn't just say that.

"Excuse me, King Lear?" she snapped.

"Great, now you've pissed her off. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to get her to chill?" Tony asked, his voice laden with frustration and irritation. She shot him a look, but he didn't catch it.

"This is important, my lady," Thor said, sounding almost angry.

"You're either going to back the fuck down, or the next word you say is going to be considered an attack, and I'm going to retaliate." Her voice was low and threatening, showing that she meant business, and she wasn't afraid to follow through on her promise.

"Seriously, back down. She's not kidding," Tony said and folded his arm.

"Get away from this scene, my lady!" Thor shouted.

"You made your bed, my friend," she answered. At that point, there was no going back. Her nerves went white-hot, and her eyes went black. She attacked. Faster than Thor could process, she had knocked his feet out from under him, and she sat on his back with a fist of his hair in her hand. He swung out a hand behind him, but she anticipated it and ducked in time. If anything, her grip on his hair tightened even more, and he let out a howl. He began to roll, and she flipped off of him, standing her ground as he got to his feet, hammer in hand.

"A she-warrior," he said. "I was unaware that Midgard possessed women of that kind."

"This is enough!" Steve shouted, but neither Grace nor Thor listened. Thor had thrown his hammer, and Grace had dodged it, racing towards him and wrapping her legs around his neck and slamming him down into the ground over his shoulder. This time, however, she made sure that his hands weren't where they could reach her.

"See what happens when you touch my stuff?" Tony remarked smartly.

"Enough! Both of you!" Steve shouted again. "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here." He glared at Thor, showing he meant business. Grace forced herself to move, releasing Thor from the ground, and she backed away quickly before he had a chance to take a swing at her. She watched him suspiciously as he held his hand out, summoning his hammer.

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Thor spat angrily. Deep down, she felt a sense of self-satisfaction for having pissed him off even more. She briefly felt Tony's amused glance on her, but she didn't look at him. She was far too deep into survival mode to really process anything but the next potential attack, and she didn't take her eyes off of the blonde alien in front of her. Her muscles were tense and ready for any kind of indication that he was going to strike.

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down," Steve said calmly in a challenging tone.

"Uh, yeah, no," Tony spoke up suddenly. "Bad call. He loves his hammer." Before he could say anything else, Thor's anger seemed to reach a peak. He lifted his hammer, knocking Tony in the faceplate and sending him flying backwards.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor roared. And then he was soaring through the air, hammer raised as he prepared to come down on Steve. Steve knelt beneath his shield, lifting it up in the air to protect him, and that's exactly what it did. As Thor's hammer struck Steve's shield, a bright ring of light and a deafening sound emitted from the contact. Thor was thrown backwards, but Steve was remained unharmed. Grace was also thrown backwards by the force of the shield's resistance. She lay on the ground without a wound on her body, and she blinked in surprise. Huh, Steve's shield must be a lot more sturdy than she'd thought it was. She'd always known that it was made of the strongest metal that there was to be found, but it'd really just lived up to its legacy, and she had to admit that she was impressed. She scrambled to her feet, her nerves slightly electric. Tony groaned and struggled back to his feet beside Steve, who was returning to a standing position as well. They all stood there and looked at each other, unsure of what to do next.

"Are we done here?" Steve asked quietly, clearly telling the others that they were, indeed, done. Thor gazed at them all warily, but he didn't say anything.

"Uh, yeah, I'll take that as a unanimous yes, we're all done," Tony spoke up when no one said anything. He redirected his glance towards Grace. "You ok, Agent?"

She didn't verbally respond, still feeling too unstable to really speak, but she nodded. He walked over to her and looked back at the rest of them.

"Well, I'll meet you guys back at the helicarrier." He wrapped one arm around her waist firmly, noticing how tense and tight her muscles were in anticipation, and he took off. Grace closed her eyes and fought the urge to throw up; she always hated whenever she flew with Tony. The sky wasn't her thing anyway, and now they were hurtling at an ungodly speed, and Jesus Christ, it was fucking cold. Her eyes remained glued shut, and time passed. Again, she had no idea how much time had passed, but it seemed like a goddamn year because by the time Tony had slammed onto the deck of the helicarrier and gotten her inside, she felt like a motherfucking ice cube. The irony of Steve Rogers passed through her mind, but she was too frozen to say anything.

"Hey, you ok? Earth to Grace, are you ok? You're shivering. Come here, I'll warm you up. Oops, I guess my suit's cold. Hey, can you walk?" Tony asked, firing off into a thousand different areas as he interrogated her; at least, it felt like he was interrogating her.

"Fine," she managed to choke out, the warmth of the helicarrier finally sweeping through her body and thawing her out.

"You don't take flying well. You look green. Are you going to be sick? Because if you're going to be sick, this is a fresh paint job. Honey, I love you, but this is the first time using the suit, and I don't want—" Tony was interrupted by Grace vomiting. Thankfully, she managed to direct it away from him and onto the floor.

"Oh, that's not pleasant. Excuse me? Can someone come clean this? I don't do vomit. Can you clean this? Great, where's our room? Ok. I wouldn't touch that with my bare hands if I were you."

Grace was dizzy, but she could hear Tony speaking in the background. He whisked her up into his arms and began stalking down the hall with her. She distantly registered that they were on the helicarrier, and she was being taken to their room. Tony's face swam in front of her, her brain still swimming from the crazy flight. God, she hated flying. In that moment, she swore she'd never do it again. She'd fucking hike if she had to instead of let Tony fly her somewhere the way he just did.

She wasn't quite sure how she got there, but she found herself on her bed in her room. Tony was standing above her still in his suit, and he was gazing down at her.

"Do you need anything? I'm going to change out of this can real quick, but I can get you something if you need it," he said. His tone was soft, and it nearly lulled her to sleep; she was so tired. She hadn't realized how tired she was. She hadn't felt this exhausted in…how long had it been? With a shake of her head, she managed to mumble out a no, and she lay still on the bed as she gathered her surroundings. Eventually, the room began to slow down, and it finally came to a stand still. She still felt sick, and she mentally cursed Tony for being able to fly the way he could.

In a matter of minutes it seemed, he was back in the room next to her. He was wearing a shirt and jeans, and he looked sweaty and tired. Kneeling by the bed, he looked down at her and put his hand on her hair.

"Are you ok?" he asked for the millionth time.

"My head hurts like hell," she said.

"Ah, she speaks!" he exclaimed quietly. "The others are about half an hour away. That gives us enough time to, you know, get acquainted. Hopefully, you don't interpret getting acquainted as in getting acquainted with your upchuck, but hey, who am I to judge."

"No, no, I'm ok. Jesus, I fucking hate flying," she mumbled as she sat up slowly. Tony grinned a dazzling smile at her, an adorably proud grin that made her slightly dizzy heart melt.

"Sometimes we're opposites," he said.

"Half an hour?" she asked.

"Yeah, half an hour."

"Great. Perfect amount of time to shower," she said and carefully stood up and tested her balance. She saw Tony's muscles tense as he caught himself from reaching out to steady her. His willingness to let her do things herself made her love him even more because she knew how hard it was for him to realize that she wasn't a fragile doll, that she wasn't like the women he'd been used to sleeping with before he'd been with her.

"Want a partner?" Tony asked innocently. She looked at him, her amber eyes blazing with something else, and she grinned.

"You know, I _am_ still feeling dizzy. I think I do need someone to steady me," she said just as innocently. Tony smirked at her and winked.

"I'm your man," he said. The bathroom was connected right to their room, and she let him hold her hand as he led her to the shower so they could quickly get the sweat and grime off from the past half hour. The shower water was hot and soothing, and Tony's hands were gentle and encouraging, every touch, every caress reminding her that she was safe with him. However, no matter how hard Grace scrubbed at her skin, she couldn't wash away the chill that she'd had when Loki's eyes had bored into the back of her skull.


	6. Unspoken Rules

**Shoutout to hockeygurl39 for the review!**

**Since I haven't been getting very much feedback from you guys, I decided to add a layer of complexity that's going to up the stakes. Y'all are going to hate me for what I've done in this chapter, but drastic measures had to be taken. Please, please, please give me feedback! It helps me know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong, both things that are very important. (Btw, I really was planning this so I didn't put it in here just to get more reviews...just in case anyone tries to accuse me of that :P)**

**Let me know what you think!**

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Chapter 6

Having had a very sensual, very naked dual shower in a record-breaking 10 minutes, Tony was thirsty and needed water. Grace was in the room with a hair dryer glued to her head, determined to get it dry within the next 15 minutes, and he desperately needed water to rehydrate. So he found himself wandering down the halls of the helicarrier wondering where on Earth a vending machine could possibly be. He'd been to hotels that had water easier to find than this helicarrier did. It crossed his mind that he should've designed some vending machines on the helicarrier, but whatever. How were thirsty SHIELD agents supposed to get something to drink?

A flash of red hair hurriedly stalking down the hall towards him caught his eye. Agent Romanoff. Always a bittersweet surprise to see her, he thought. She was certainly easy on the eyes, hence the sweet part, but he still hadn't forgotten about how she'd imposter-ed him, hence the bitter part. He didn't trust her worth a damn, and he didn't care if she knew it.

"Agent Romanoff, I thought you weren't supposed to be back for another 15 minutes," he said.

"Sometimes we run ahead of schedule," she said, hinting at making a joke.

"Is the Almighty Horned One in a cage?" he asked cheerfully.

"Something like that."

"Excellent. So where can a breathtakingly handsome man like myself find water around here?" he asked, desperate to get his damn drink of water.

"Thirsty, I see," she said easily, ignoring his question. Her bright green eyes were piercing, and he found himself staring at them. Ever since Agent Grace Marks had walked through the door of his Malibu home for the very first time, and he'd seen her weird ass eyes, he couldn't help but notice other people's eyes. Natasha had lovely eyes; there was nothing weird about them. They were green and bright and seductive, and he knew she knew they were seductive because of how she used them to look up at him. Even when she wasn't trying to be seductive, the assassin was seductive.

"Parched. Do you know where I can go? he asked, redirecting the conversation back to his task at hand.

"The kitchen's off this way. Come on. I'll walk with you," she said. Tony was surprised that she was walking with him, knowing that she wasn't his biggest fan, but hey, he was completing his mission, and that was all he cared about.

"Grace proved that she's just as impulsive as you are, today," Natasha said out of the blue. His surprise increased, and he glanced at the agent and shrugged.

"Doesn't acting on impulse make you a good agent?" he asked.

"It can get you killed if you don't know which impulses to act on," she replied, her footsteps echoing down the hall as they walked. Agents in the typical black SHIELD uniform brushed past them with worried expressions on their faces. Everyone was wearing that look ever since Loki had been brought in.

"She's a good agent. She's smart," Tony said blandly. Natasha gestured to a door on the right hand side as they walked up to it.

"Here we are," she said and opened the door. Much to Tony's relief, he saw a fridge, and he walked swiftly towards it. Sure enough, the fridge was stocked with bottles of water. He smirked when he saw the labels on the bottles; they were black with the SHIELD emblem in white. Of course SHIELD would have their own water bottles. After grabbing one and twisting the top off, he began to gulp the water down.

"Tony, do you trust Grace?" Natasha asked suddenly. He frowned and looked at her with a curious expression.

"You're asking me if I trust a trained assassin who I'm 95% sure has killed more people than I have?" he asked. Natasha smiled thinly at him, the irony not lost to her.

"She's a good agent," she replied, throwing his own words back at him.

"Call me crazy, but yeah, I trust her," he answered simply with a shrug. "Why do you ask? Never really been a question-y kind of gal before." His brown eyes scanned over her suspiciously. He trusted Grace, but he sure as hell didn't trust the redhead in front of him. Not giving anything away, Natasha stared calmly back at him.

"I wouldn't trust her with my life," she said. His eyebrows rose, and he scoffed.

"Wow, you really are great at impostering people," he announced. "All this time I thought you and Grace were friends, and now here you are saying you don't trust her worth shit."

"We _are _friends," Natasha protested. "I just wouldn't trust her if she were the last person on Earth."

"Heavy conversation to have over a bottle of water. Ok, Romanoff, you've piqued my interest. Why wouldn't you trust her?" he asked and took another swig of his water, his dark brown eyes staring at her with an intense look on his face.

"Her skills are about putting herself first. If it's between her or another agent, she's going to choose herself," Natasha said. Tony rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"So I'm supposed to be mad at her or something because she's human?" he asked. Natasha shook her head and folded her arms across her chest, her eyebrows knitting together in a small frown.

"Did she ever tell you that she almost killed me?" she asked. Tony stilled. His brown eyes were wide with shock, and he didn't say anything; his silence was answer enough for Natasha, and she nodded knowingly, a ghost of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. She flicked a red strand of hair out of her eyes and licked her lips.

"Yeah, she almost killed me. Right after she was brought in after her time in South America, SHIELD sent me in to help train her. She was a mess. Looked like a cornered animal with rabies."

"I've seen the videos," Tony interrupted, sounding irritated. His eyes flashed a warning, at Natasha, but she ignored it. She raised her eyebrows.

"Yet you didn't see the one where she sent me to the hospital for four months," she said wryly. "Yeah, I thought that when she didn't immediately lash out at me, it was a good sign. However, it wasn't. What she was _really _doing was calculating the best way to attack. She let me get close to her, and then she lunged at me and pushed me back into the ground so hard that my skull split open, and I had to be placed under a medically induced coma."

"She never mentioned it," Tony replied nonchalantly with a shrug. "You survived, and she's got her skills under control now. She wouldn't hurt me."

Natasha narrowed her intense green eyes and tilted her head almost imperceptibly to the side.

"Be careful," she said quietly. "You may think that you're exempt from her path of destruction whenever she's in survival mode, but you're not. No one is."

Tony was silent as he opened the fridge and pulled out a second bottle of water to take back to Grace. His mind was spinning from everything that Natasha had told him. Grace had never said a word about the fact that she'd almost killed Natasha; whenever she'd spoken about the redheaded agent, she spoke fondly of her friend. She always had wonderful things to say about Clint and Natasha both, never once indicating that she'd tried to kill said friend. Of course, he knew that he couldn't hold her actions against her; when she'd been brought into SHIELD for the first time, she basically was a wild animal, her mind crazed from having spent years being held in captivity. Still, Natasha's words sent a shiver down his spine. He turned back to her, his eyes hardened.

"Your problem and SHIELD's problem is that you don't give her enough credit. She'll surprise you, Agent, I guarantee it. She's surprised me every day for the past two years, and I haven't once regretted a single moment with her," he said in a tone that meant he wasn't fucking around. He went to turn, but Natasha's voice stopped him.

"Fury wants to see us in about 10 minutes," she said. Tony didn't say anything. He walked out of the room and down the hall to Grace.

The past 48 hours had been full of hard to believe information, but what Natasha had just told him was one of the most challenging things he'd heard. Grace had tried to kill Natasha. Tony wasn't an idiot. He knew that Grace had killed many people in her past; hell, he couldn't even hold that against her. Before he'd gotten into the business of Iron Man, he'd created weapons that had killed millions of people, probably even billions. He'd taken even more lives than she had, that went without saying. Still. It was a shock to hear that his girlfriend had tried to kill someone she considered a close friend and hadn't thought to say anything about it to him.

He stalked down the hall, rushing past more worried SHIELD agents, their whispers surrounding him as he walked past. For the first time, they didn't seem to be concerned about him. There were more serious issues at hand than Tony Stark being on board. He ignored them all, walking by them with one goal in mind. He reached the room, and he pushed open the door. Grace was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed, chin in hand, reading a book. Her long brown hair was in a single braid down her back, staying out of her clear face. She'd changed into a clean black SHIELD uniform, and she looked at ease in it. Tony was so used to not seeing her in it that it always caught him off guard whenever she wore it. She looked so professional and, well, assassin-like in it. The thought bothered him, but he pushed it out of his head.

"Hey, honey," he said. "I brought you water."

She looked up at him and smiled brightly.

"Thanks," she said. He crossed to the bed and sat down next to her. She took the water from his hand and opened it, eagerly slowing it. Her eyes were closed as she drank, and he took the opportunity to watch her. It was moments like these that he lived for. He loved the time that they had alone when they could just relax and be comfortable with each other. She wasn't afraid to show what she was thinking, and she laughed easily and freely.

"Do you remember anything about your time when you first joined up with SHIELD?" he asked. She swallowed the water that she was in the middle of drinking, and she lowered the bottle, frowning as she did so. Tony was breaking an unspoken rule that they'd basically established since Day One: don't ask about traumatic times. She never asked him about his experience in Afghanistan or what it was like discovering that Obadiah wasn't his friend or what it was like to lose his parents. He never asked her about her injection, the high school shooting, or South America. They just didn't do that. If one of them offered information about it, then that was one thing. But it was a mutually accepted fact that they were never to ask the other about it. She was quiet, her amber eyes sharply gazing at him. Her mouth twisted to the side as she contemplated what to say. Of all the things she'd expected Tony to ask her, this was the last one.

"Bits and pieces," she finally said cautiously. "There are vivid flashes of it where it seems like it happened yesterday, but then other bits are blurred and foggy, and some things I don't remember at all."

She didn't ask why Tony had questioned her; she kept staring at him, unaware of the fact that her blank face had come up. As soon as Tony saw her expressionless slate come over her face, he knew that he'd fucked up, and he regretted it. He reached out and put a hand on her knee, his thumb gently rubbing the black fabric over her skin.

"Natasha told you I tried to kill her," she finally said quietly. Tony wasn't surprised that she could guess his motives for things; usually, she was spot on, just like she was now. Hearing her say it out loud made him feel even more guilty. He'd just violated one of their unspoken rules, and she'd been able to guess why he'd asked her. He should know by now that Grace always knew. He nodded.

"She caught me in the hall. They got back early," he said. "Speaking of, Fury wants to see us soon out there for whatever reason. As if he doesn't bug us enough."

"Is Loki in custody?" Grace asked.

"Yeah, Natasha mentioned something along those lines," he said.

"Seems like she mentioned a lot more than just that," Grace said sharply, her face remaining unchanged. Tony inwardly flinched at the tone of her voice. She was clearly upset, even if she didn't look it. Her light eyes were more fiery than usual, and they only made him feel guiltier and guiltier.

"She just wanted to talk," he said lamely. Grace's mouth twitched into an unreadable smirk.

"Did she," she murmured. "Isn't that coincidental."

"Grace, it wasn't like that," Tony began to protest.

"It wasn't like what, Tony? I didn't even say anything," she replied. He ran a hand through his slightly damp hair and sighed, not sure of what to say. He wasn't even entirely sure what she was accusing him of, let alone whether or not she was accusing him in the first place. He wished he'd just let himself die of thirst instead of venturing out into the hallway looking for that goddamned water. He wished he'd ignored Natasha instead of goading her on. He wished he'd designed a vending machine right inside their room.

"I don't know what you want me to say," he finally said on an exhale.

"Is your next question going to be about what I was feeling when I saw my professor's head get shot off? Or are you going to ask me about having a bullet being buried in my own brain? What's next, Tony?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly.

"Do you remember your time in the cave, Tony?" she asked suddenly. His eyes shot to meet her, dark and molten, no longer soft and guilt-ridden.

"Stop," he spat.

"Yeah, I'll stop," she spat back and quickly got up, easily moving towards the door at a quick pace.

"Where are you going?" Tony asked, even though he hadn't wanted to give in and show any kind of curiosity. He was mad at her. No, he was furious with her, and he was trying to justify it to himself. She might have come back at him with that question, but he'd been the one to ask her in the first place. Still, the anger burned hot through his blood as he looked after her. A contradiction of emotions ran through him, the guilt and the anger ferociously battling each other, the anger desperately wanting to come out on top.

"I'm going to go meet with Fury and the rest of the team like we're supposed to be doing," she responded shortly.

"You always do this. You run away from any kind of problem instead of facing it," Tony said before he could stop himself. The words slipped out of his mouth as if they were greased with butter. His eyes were wide both with shock and anger as he realized that he'd actually verbalized those thoughts. Inches away from the door, Grace froze in her tracks and whipped around to face him, her long braid swinging around over her shoulder. He had learned long ago to not expect white-hot anger when she was mad at him because he knew he'd never receive it. Now as she stared at him, completely robotic, he wished deep down that she would show how angry she was.

"Don't you dare accuse me of that," she said quietly.

"Wanna talk about two years ago when you asked to be reassigned because it got too tough for you? Or how about a year ago when you couldn't tell me that you thought you were incapable of dying? You had to go run to your little buddy Steve and tell him all about it, but you couldn't talk to me. Maybe we can even talk about when you ran away from your problems a fucking month ago when you read in the paper that your mom just received some new award, and you refused to talk about it," Tony answered, the rage evident in his voice.

"Yeah, you're a big tough guy, aren't you. You come back from being tortured in Afghanistan, but you don't have any lasting effects, do you? You don't ever have the occasional nightmare about it. The reason you can't take being blindfolded for more than 10 minutes isn't because of your time in the cave at all," Grace replied, the edge in her tone cutting him.

"At least I'm not the one leaving," Tony said. He refused to give her anything to turn back on him; she had enough, and he was well aware of it. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at the billionaire.

"Is that what I'm doing?" she asked.

"You tell me," he said, challenging her. He was baiting her with his words. Adrenaline of a different kind made his heart thud hard against his ribs. This wasn't a pleasant kind of adrenaline that made him feel good. This was painful and bitter, and it felt like someone had injected lemon juice into his veins.

"Then fine. I'm leaving," Grace finally said, and she opened the door and walked out. Tony sat on the bed, staring at the shut door in stunned silence. She'd actually walked out. She'd actually left. A numbness settled into his bones as the weight of what had just happened came crashing down on him. His chest was tight, and he had to force himself to inhale, the burn of oxygen entering his lungs telling him that he hadn't been breathing. She'd left. She'd walked out. He told himself that she hadn't _actually_ left, but he couldn't help feeling a finality that made him feel sick to his stomach. Grace never did anything half-assed, and she certainly hadn't half-assed that exit.

Maybe Natasha had been right; he wasn't exempt from Grace's path of destruction. She might not have physically killed him just now, but her absence, as fresh as a new wound, was enough to make him feel as though he were dying all over again. This time, however, Agent Grace Marks wouldn't be there to bring him back to life.


	7. Team Meeting

**Shoutouts to jennie68, Uruvia, hockeygurl39, bluemermaidpitch, and MsRose91.**

**This is the happiest y'all have made me because y'all left feedback for me! Yayyyy! Yeah, it seems for the most part that everyone has been waiting for this fight to come, and honestly, so have I. They haven't had a REALLY bad fight since she left him in Survival Skills so I figured that it was time for them to have another fight. No relationship is perfect =)**

**So please, again, not to sound desperate, but feel free to keep leaving reviews. I love them. I live for them. I want to know what you guys want so that I can write for what you guys want. (Unless y'all start shipping Grace and Steve together because I totally don't think I could pair them up. I'd have to put my foot down there haha)**

**Let me know y'all's thoughts!**

* * *

Chapter 7

It wasn't until Grace had walked down the hall into the atrium of the helicarrier and sunk down into a chair at the table that she really understood what she had just done. She lowered her head down into her hands, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms and ignoring the intense burning that seared across the backs of her eyelids. The feeling was a strong sign that tears were shortly on their way, but she had to pull herself together; she couldn't sit at this meeting and cry, particularly with Tony Stark himself in the room. Her throat tightened as she ran over the argument again in her head. Fuck, who was she kidding…that wasn't an argument. That was a fight. That was a fight, and she'd walked out, and the second she'd set her foot out the door, she's known it was over between them because she'd heard the inaudible snap of their breaking apart.

She drew in a shaky breath and released it slowly, hoping that the meditation sessions she attended every morning would come in handy and take away the sharp blade of pain that was cutting through her solar plexus. No such luck. Footsteps coming up behind her alerted her, despite the quiet, gentle thuds they made. Another Serum Perk, as Grace so lovingly called the positives of her Serum, was that once she heard someone's footsteps, she'd always be able to identify who was making said footsteps. Steve was walking towards her, and she lifted her head wearily to greet him.

"Grace?" His voice was quiet and gentle, just like his footsteps, just like him. She turned and smiled thinly at him. His blue eyes settled questioningly onto hers, and she could see that he could detect something was the matter with her. He went to say something, but he stopped himself. He took a breath and then approached her cautiously.

"So Loki's locked up?" she asked, her voice betraying not a single shred of emotion. Steve nodded and sat down in the chair next to her. He was still wearing his uniform, and he looked every inch the young American superhero that he'd established himself as in 1942. Despite how much emotional turmoil she was in, she could feel a wave of fondness for the young man next to her as he sat there so innocently and noble in his uniform, wanting to rid the world of evil and make it an ok place again.

"He went surprisingly calmly," he said. "Natasha wasn't too thrilled about our jumping out after Tony."

Grace rolled her eyes before she could stop herself.

"The last person I really want to talk to is Natasha," she said. Technically, that was a lie. The last person she wanted to talk to was Tony, but whatever. She didn't want to see Natasha either. Rationally, she knew that her anger at Natasha was somewhat misplaced. She didn't exactly see what Natasha's goal had been in telling Tony that back in Grace's early days at SHIELD when she'd been buzzed out of her mind, she'd tried to kill Natasha, but she knew that ultimately, it was Tony's fault for breeching their silent agreement to never speak about certain things. She ran a hand over her hair, smoothing down any fly-aways, in contained frustration.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked. She shot him an expressionless glance and sighed.

"Long story. Um, I think Tony and I broke up," she said. Squinting her eyes, she stared up at the ceiling and inspected it so she wouldn't have to look at Steve. She didn't need to look at him to feel his surprise hit her like a thousand bricks had come smashing down on top of her. His surprise quickly turned to anger, his muscles tensing.

"What did he do?" he asked darkly. She finally looked over at him, and she shook her head with a tiny smile on her face.

"Long story," she repeated wearily. He turned to face her full on, his face serious and intense as his blue eyes pierced her. Since Grace was someone who studied eyes—she could read anyone like the back of her hand just by taking a look at the person's eyes—she was usually pleasantly surprised by Steve's inconsistent eyes. On a daily basis, he was kind and sweet, very respectful and polite. All it took was something like an amber-eyed agent saying that she had broken up with her boyfriend to get his gentle, clear eyes to turn into a heated blue fire.

"Grace, what did he do?" he repeated. "Look, I know I don't have a very good grasp on the world around me, especially now that aliens and gods have come into the mix, but I know when something doesn't sit right."

At that moment, Dr. Banner and Natasha wandered into the room. Natasha made eye contact with Grace and nodded by way of greeting. Grace nodded back, unsure how to approach with her fellow agent but deciding, at least for now, to say nothing. She smiled at Dr. Banner who returned her smile.

"How's the lab working out for you?" she asked. His smile seemed to brighten slightly, and he nodded pleasantly.

"It's great. Everything's in working order, thank you," he said. "So, uh, what's the point of this meeting? We're getting called together because Loki's been brought in?"

"They just finished in-processing him, and he's being taken to a safe, secure location," Natasha explained simply and efficiently. "Fury wants to meet with us to debrief us, talk about our next plan of action. Ah, look, speak of the devil."

A screen came up on the transparent table, displaying the scene that was taking place between Loki and Fury as Fury introduced the god of mischief to his new surroundings. For whatever reason, Loki looked relatively pleased to be placed in this cage. Grace frowned as she watched him smile at his new surroundings. There was something really fucking off with him, and she couldn't quite tell what it was. She was excellent at reading people's intentions, and she couldn't read a damn thing off of him. They all watched in silence as Loki and Fury bantered back and forth. Halfway through the conversation, Thor entered the room, looking very disturbed and thoughtful about what Loki and Fury were saying to each other.

"A mindless beast," Loki said, referring to what the cage had been built for. "Makes play he's still a man. How _desperate _are you, that you call on lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me _very _desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

Grace wanted to kick Fury; as someone who knew about strategy and self-preservation, she couldn't help thinking that he'd done the worst possible thing. He'd displayed his vulnerability for Loki, something that the god could play on. She gritted her teeth together but didn't say anything aloud to the others.

"Ooo," Loki breathed as if he were intimidated. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, _unlimited _power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what _real_ power is."

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," Fury finally said and stalked out of the room. Grace did have to give it to the man that he knew how to make an exit.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Dr. Banner said, breaking the tension in the room. He sounded almost cheerful as he looked around the room for conceding opinions.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve said, finally relaxing back into his chair a bit more. Thankfully, he seemed to have let the issue about Tony go for now, much to Grace's relief. She didn't want to deal with this personal shit when she had such an important mission to take care of.

"So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, his blue eyes glancing up towards the blonde god.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor of any world known. He means to lead you against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor said quietly but seriously, his eyes meeting every single teammate's. He looked like he was fresh out of a damn comic book, Grace thought in amusement to herself.

"An army…from outer space," Steve repeated with a hint of disbelief and sarcasm creeping into his voice. He glanced over at Grace and made eye contact with her, a frown covering his features.

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Banner stated, removing his glasses. Grace could again see the wheels turning in his head as his thoughts raced through, forming conclusions and making solutions.

"Selvig?" Thor repeated, recognition flashing through his eyes.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner explained, unaware that Thor was closely acquainted to the man. Grace wondered how much her other teammates knew about each other; she'd been granted special access to the files because she had such a high clearance, and she'd always been a valuable asset to the team, due to her inability to so far be vanquished. Tony had been allowed to see the files because he was a genius, and if anyone could figure all of that shit out, it was Tony.

"He's a friend," Thor quietly replied, seemingly lost in his own brain.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Grace spoke up.

"Along with one of ours," Natasha finished, staring hard at Grace. Grace returned her stare, and in a matter of two glances, the two agents had exchanged a conversation. Natasha's worry seemed to grow with every passing second.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve said with his frown still present. "He's not leading an army from here.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Banner answered.

"With all due respect, Dr., but like hell we shouldn't," Grace said. Banner seemed to take no offense to her words, instead regarding her and her opinion seriously.

"That guy's brain is a bag full of cats," he said sincerely, his tone even. "You could _smell_ crazy on him."

Grace grinned at him, though she knew it was probably inappropriate to.

"Have care how you speak," Thor abruptly spoke. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

She rolled her eyes. Fuck being rude at this point. She was growing tired of this "Loki is my brother, be nice" attitude that Thor had been sporting the second he'd walked in the room. Just because someone was from a certain planet didn't mean shit to her.

"He killed 80 people in two days," she deadpanned. Thor quietly stared at her, appearing at a loss for words.

"He's adopted," he finally resigned.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Banner changed the subject, much to Grace's welcoming. She felt a sense of victory of the blonde god, but she still didn't want to sit there and listen to him talk about how they should "have care how they speak" about Loki.

"Iridium," Banner threw out there. "What do they need the iridium for?"

Tension crept into Grace's body as she sensed Tony walking down the hall. She could've recognized his presence from 30 miles away, and she hadn't even been paying attention to his footsteps. He had a quick-paced, determined swagger when he walked, making it very easy for her to pick up on where he was.

"Stabilizing agent," he announced in response to Banner's question, surprising everyone at the table but Grace. He didn't look at her, but she stared at him, allowing her amber eyes to beam into his skin.

"I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland," Tony said as he returned his attention back to Agent Coulson who had accompanied Tony down the hall. Grace immediately picked up that they were talking about the cellist that Coulson had kind of been seeing for the past few months. With Coulson's arrival came Agent Maria Hill's arrival.

Grace had never directly worked with Agent Hill before, but she'd heard fabulous things about the dark-haired woman. Hill watched everyone around her, scrutinizing their every movement. In a way, Hill reminded Grace a lot of herself. Grace flicked her amber eyes back to Tony, watching him closely.

"Keep love alive," Tony said, and a sharp pang shot through her heart. He knew she could hear him, and he'd said it just to get at her. He had also used his powers of style to get to her, having cleaned up into a nice suit, a tie around his neck. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she recognized the tie. She'd given it to him this past Christmas because his favorite one had gotten too worn out and raggedy-looking. Never mind that he had a closet full of ties; she'd wanted to get him a tie because it was a very stereotypical girlfriend thing to do, and she'd known it would be incentive: get rid of an old tie and receive a new one. He was wearing it now, and she felt slightly sick to her stomach as her gaze settled on it.

"It means the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD," Tony continued right where he'd left off, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and casually strolling about the table. He crossed over to Thor and held up a hand of truce to the god. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Besides, I admire your contribution to the feminist movement by not allowing Agent Marks's gender to sway your fighting instincts. I think that it's very considerate to not refuse to fight her just because she's a woman. Good job, buddy."

He continued to walk easily, ignoring Grace's stare. As she stared at him, she realized that she'd never wanted to make the first attack on anyone more than she wanted to at Tony Stark right then. She'd always been aware of the fact that he was a prick, but she'd stood up for him since Day One. She'd covered his ass left and right, made excuses for him, apologized for him, and now she was just as sick of that as she was of Thor's defense of his pathetic fucking brother.

"Also," Tony continued, fully aware of Grace's hard glare but acting like he wasn't, "it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." He'd stopped in front of Fury's screens, and he was examining them. The other control agents paused and stared at the billionaire with severely confused faces. Grace suppressed the urge to run her hand over her face. Any sign of frustration would alert the team, and she really didn't want to do that.

"That man is playing _Galaga_!" Tony called out. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Grace caught Steve's confused expression at the mention of the foreign game. Poor Steve. He was never catching onto anything anyone was saying. Thank God he had Emma to help him through with it. Speaking of Emma, Grace wanted to talk to her. She'd only gotten to briefly change pleasantries with the nurse, and she wanted to talk more in depth.

Tony frowned and covered one of his eyes with his hands.

"How does Fury even see these?" he demanded, turning over his shoulder for an explanation from someone. His eyes paused on Grace, but she made no reaction whatsoever.

"He turns," Agent Hill spoke up. Tony frowned and brushed it off simultaneously.

"Sounds exhausting," he said, his mind already elsewhere. His eye had caught onto one of the screens, and he was reading the information on it, his eyebrows knit closely together as the thoughts raced through his mind. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to," he turned and faced everyone, snapping his fingers ceremoniously, "kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked, narrowing her eyes. It was clear that the stern-looking agent wasn't sure whether or not to be impressed with the infamous Tony Stark.

"Last night," he deadpanned with a slight hint of smugness creeping into his voice. His dark chocolate eyes flicked over to Grace, locking onto her light amber ones. A strange expression crossed his face, only there for a flash, then gone. "Agent Marks can attest to that."

All eyes turned to Grace. Inwardly, she wanted to murder Tony for having mentioned her and brought her into the conversation when he was obviously doing it just to get to her. She stared calmly back at him with her typical no-nonsense, empty face. She nodded curtly, not saying anything. Like hell was she going to give him the satisfaction of replying.

"No comment, Agent?" Tony goaded innocently. Forcing herself to stay calm, she slowly inhaled and exhaled through her nose before opening her mouth.

"No, Mr. Stark," she replied.

"Funny. You usually have some kind of delightful little point to add," he said, an edge entering into his voice. She stared back at him. "No? Alright, then, moving on."

"The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?" he asked, looking about the rest of the team in disbelief.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve jumped in.

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner thoughtfully interjected. Yeah, Grace was impressed with Dr. Banner. She could only imagine how Tony was mentally freaking out over being so close to the fellow scientist; he'd always been a huge fan of Banner's work.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony suggested as if this were obvious.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner bantered.

"_Finally_, someone who speaks English," Tony remarked pleasantly.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked, turning to Grace. She shook her head, her lips firmly pressed together.

"He's showing off," she mumbled.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said, for once sounding very sincere and impressed by someone who was not him. "Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

"Thanks," Banner replied, unsure whether Tony's comment was a compliment or not.

"He needs to be more careful," Steve mumbled under his breath to Grace. "If Tony makes the wrong move, he can send Banner over the edge."

"Trust me, I've already thought of that," Grace replied in a tone that leveled Steve's.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him," Fury announced, making his grand entrance. Huh, Grace thought, it was about time the infamous director showed up; he'd been the one to call everyone together.

"I would start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"Steve's got a point," Grace said with a shrug. Tony's dark eyes swept over to hers, and he tilted his head as he looked at her. She returned his stare but didn't give anything away. His frustration deepened as he looked at her; he was frustrated with her and with himself. He was frustrated with her, obviously, because she'd attacked him in the room just to get back at him. Deep down, he knew that he'd been the one who'd started the whole thing because he'd asked her about traumatic times, but it still didn't make her attack on him any less painful. He was also frustrated with her because he wasn't entirely sure if she'd dumped him, and he didn't like being dumped. Technically, he'd never been dumped in all his life, and he hated being on the receiving end of it now.

And his frustration with himself came from how he was purposely pouring salt onto the wounds, trying to provoke her in front of the team. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd started doing it as soon as he'd seen that she was sitting right next to Steve. Fucking Steve. Tony had never been that great about their friendship. It wasn't that he felt particularly threatened by Steve because sure, Steve was big and muscular and gorgeous and blonde, but Tony was just as fucking gorgeous, and he'd be damned if anyone said anything differently. Besides, Tony was loaded and was a genius. In his opinion, he had way more on Steve. Still, that thought didn't assuage his mind as he took note of how closely Grace was positioned to the all-American superhero.

"Uh, thanks for your contribution, Agent Marks, I guess," he snapped. She coolly regarded him but didn't say anything. He should've known better than to try to get a reaction from her because she never, ever gave one, no matter how hard he tried.

"I don't know about that, but it _is _powered by the Cube," Fury said. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to use two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said with a confused frown on his face. Grace suppressed a grin at his expense.

"I do!" Steve nearly shouted, pointing his finger in excitement. He turned to Grace, beaming, and then looked back at Fury. "I-I understood that reference."

He looked so damn proud of himself that Grace finally allowed herself to smile. Admittedly, she also let herself smile because she'd seen Tony openly and very rudely roll his eyes in annoyance at the young man's excitement.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" the billionaire asked as he redirected the conversation away from Steve's joy at knowing what flying monkeys were.

"This way, sir," Banner said with a small grin on his face. Grace allowed herself to openly roll her eyes as well.

"Great, he's going to go have a science orgasm," she muttered to Steve. The army captain's eyes widened at the "o" word, and she shot him an irritated look. "Steve, it's 2012. If you can experience an orgasm without looking horrified, you can listen to me say the word orgasm without looking horrified."

"I think I was more horrified by your putting Tony and orgasm together in the same sentence," Steve replied. Grace blinked blankly, and then she started laughing. Tony heard her laughing, and he looked over, feeling very unthrilled when he realized that she was laughing at something Steve had said. Fucking Steve. As he walked out of the room, he could hear the sounds of Galaga starting up again. Fucking SHIELD monkey.

Tony was in a raging bad mood by that point, but he tried to clear his mind of it. He was going to go do science. With science, he'd be able to forget that the physical matter making up the one scientific mystery to him had just broken the physical matter of his heart.


	8. Secrets

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, hockeygurl39, and Uruvia for the reviews! Y'all's reviews mean so much to me!**

**Things start to get even more heated in this chapter. For all you Stemma shippers, Emma makes a brief appearance! I thought I'd held off long enough on having her in the story because I really did want to bring her in. I just couldn't think of a better way to do it until now.**

**Please, please, please keep leaving reviews and letting me know what you think. The more feedback I get (even if it's bad feedback), the more inclined I am to update quickly. If I don't hear what you guys think, I always take it as no one really cared about what happened in that chapter, so then I don't update as quickly because my motivation isn't too strong haha**

**This chapter is the longest one I think I've ever written, so I hope y'all don't mind. Let me know what you think!**

* * *

Chapter 8

"So. You and the girl, huh?" Banner asked as soon as they got into the lab. Tony frowned and glanced over at the scientist.

"What about the girl?" he asked, feigning innocence and confusion. Banner raised his eyebrows at him and gave a tiny little smile. He removed his glasses.

"You have a contempt for all things SHIELD, and you're with a SHIELD agent," he said ironically. Tony winced and shook his head in response, glancing away from Banner and fiddling with his hands.

"Ah, yeah, that's not a thing," he said quickly. "It was a two year thing, but then, as of like, 15 minutes ago, it became a not thing. So yeah. Not a thing."

"Oh," Banner said awkwardly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm fine. It's fine." If Grace were there, she would've been impressed by the blank expression he allowed to slip over his face. It was the only defense mechanism he could think of to keep his feelings in tact. He'd only learned from the best. Even as Tony said it, he knew he was lying his ass off. He wasn't fine because if he were fine, he wouldn't be consciously telling himself when to inhale and exhale; he wouldn't be feeling an ache deeper in his chest than even his arc reactor could cause; he wouldn't be wanting to run back out into the atrium, punch Steve in the face, and then give in and tell Grace he was sorry. But he wouldn't do that because he was too mad and too stubborn. He didn't regret that he'd confronted her running away from her problems because it was the truth. For someone who had to live in danger basically every second of her life, Grace Marks ran from her problems whenever they got too bad.

His first experience with that had been when she'd asked Fury to be reassigned when she'd been monitoring him two years ago. He'd thrown that fucking party and gotten his ass kicked, and she'd hightailed it. Then, the most recent event had been about, what, a month ago? He racked his brain for an estimate, and he settled on his original guess: a month ago.

Grace's mom, Sarah Marks, a biochemist, had received some new award for a breakthrough she'd made in cancer treatments. The news had been broadcast around the world, and as soon as Grace had seen it, she'd shut down, her robot face sliding into position, blocking Tony out from seeing how she really felt about it. Of course, she'd pretended to Tony like she was ok and didn't need to talk about it, but Tony would be damned if he didn't know her better. He knew her situation with her parents, and he knew that she was upset at seeing her mother get that award, but she still wouldn't talk to him.

In the two years that they'd been together, Tony had rarely heard Grace say a negative thing about her mother. She had plenty of negative things to say about her dad, but she rarely mentioned her mom. Whenever she talked about her "parents," Sarah Marks was included in that description, but nothing additional was ever said. Being the typical researching man of science that he was, he'd taken it upon himself to find out all he could about Sarah Marks, and he had to admit that he was impressed with the woman. Sarah's contribution to the world of biochemistry was significant, much like Dr. Banner's, and she'd proven herself to be a worthy, competent scientist. Even though he would _never_ follow through on it, he would've loved to have sat down and talked about her research with her because, really, she was a smart person, and he loved smart people. That was one of the infinite reasons he loved Grace.

Grace was smarter than anyone else he'd ever known, and he'd spent his life around geniuses. The thing that made her different was the fact that she didn't seem to have a particular leaning towards a subject; she absorbed all information about all subjects. He'd seen her do it; she would sit down at the beginning of the morning with a book on ocean engineering, and by the end of the day, she was a goddamn expert on it, sounding as if she'd received her PhD in ocean engineering from the way she could talk about it. On top of that, she fully understood what she was learning. She didn't just memorize information; she took the time to make sure that she comprehended the topic that she'd picked to learn. Her brain was a sponge, always sucking every little bit of information so that she could look back on it in case she needed it to save her.

As he thought about her, there was nothing more he wanted to do than take her in his arms. But he couldn't do that. He was in the lab, and he was angry, and she was out in the atrium laughing at whatever it was that fucking Steve Rogers was saying to her.

"Hey, Tony, got any more broken ribs for me to patch up?" a familiar voice rang out. He turned over his shoulder and was greeted by the image of light sunny hair and sea-colored eyes, topped off with a bright, clear smile.

"Ah, Emma Carroll, ever the caretaker. Fortunately, I am in one piece for the time being. What can I do for you? It's not every day that a lovely nurse such as yourself comes wandering into a lab full of crazy scientists" he said. Her laughter trickled out of her mouth, and she beamed at him.

"I'm looking for Steve, actually," she said. Tony made a face and rolled his eyes. He'd never been one to feign liking someone just to be polite. Emma knew that he didn't like her boyfriend, but she was so sweet and good-natured that she didn't say anything about it.

"He's out in the main area with Agent Marks," he said. Emma's face lit up at the mention of Grace's name.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed. "I was just wanting to see her, too."

Tony's mouth twisted into what he hoped was a pleasant smile, but based off of Emma's confused look, he knew he'd hopelessly failed at smiling and had successfully achieved a painful looking grimace. She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, looking genuinely concerned about him. Emma Carroll was always genuinely concerned about everyone, so sincere in her actions and intentions that it was no wonder she and Steve were a couple. They both wanted to make the world a better place, and they looked damn perfect together. Steve with his large muscles, old-fashioned hairstyle, and blue eyes, and Emma with her clear smile, sunny disposition, and grey-green eyes that always lit up whenever she looked at the army captain. Emma was a lot more tolerable than Steve, Tony thought to himself as he looked at her looking back at him.

"Is everything ok?" Emma asked with a frown. Tony forced a smile and nodded sharply.

"Yep. Everything's great. It's perfect," he said a little too loudly. Emma blinked, knowing that something was wrong but knowing better than to try to get Tony to talk about it when he didn't want to, so she just nodded and accepted that that was all she was going to get out of him.

"I'll see you later, Tony," she said with a smile.

"See ya, Carroll," he said to her, and she whisked out of the room. He looked over at Banner and saw the dark-haired scientist staring curiously at him.

"What?" he deadpanned.

"That's Cap's girl?" Banner asked. Tony smirked and nodded.

"Don't know how he landed that, but yeah," he replied.

"Huh. Well, doesn't that beat all," Banner answered. "Shall we work?"

"Yes, Dr. Let's."

* * *

Agent Grace Marks enjoyed Steve's company because he understood what she'd gone through with the Serum. She knew that Tony had never liked how close that she and Steve were because Tony was a jealous son of a bitch whether or not he wanted to admit it, but Steve got her on that level that Tony didn't. So she sat there in the atrium at the table with Steve, talking about what they thought they needed to do about Loki.

"I think you're right: we need to be trying to locate the Cube through Loki," she said. "I don't know why no one else seems to think that that's the best place to start. He's clearly got something up his sleeve, and if we can get him to confess it to us, we'll be one step ahead of him."

"Yeah, I just don't think it'll be that easy," Steve replied, rubbing his chin with his hand. Grace scoffed.

"Of course it's not going to be easy, but when you have Nat and me in on it, we'll be able to get him to confess something," she said.

"Good cop, bad cop?" Steve asked. She grinned at him and shook her head.

"Nah. We both have different extraction methods, so when you combine both of them, we'll be able to reach some kind of conclusion. We wouldn't do it together because that's too obvious," she said.

"So what's this going on with you and Natasha and Tony?" Steve asked. His voice hardened a little bit at the mention of Tony's name. Grace glanced up at him, her amber eyes piercing him with their intensity as they always did. He'd grown accustomed to not being freaked out by how…how _on_ she was all the time, even when she was just relaxing.

"Uh, I tried to kill Natasha when I first joined up with SHIELD," she said with a nonchalant shrug. "I was out of my mind in survival mode, so I cracked her skull open, and she told Tony about it, for whatever reason. I mean, I don't even remember attacking her, so….yeah."

"That's why you and Tony split?" Steve asked. Grace winced, shaking her head.

"No, uh, he asked me about it, and we kind of have this unspoken agreement to not ask about fucked up times of our lives. I got upset, and then we fought about it. Painful shit got dragged up." She shrugged as if it didn't mean anything to her. Her face said one thing, but Steve knew that there was no way anyone could be ok after having gone through a break up that had ended the way it had. He didn't say anything, unsure of how to comfort the agent in front of him. He and Grace had a strong friendship, and he knew that it was saying something for her to open up to him. Really, the only people she'd open up to would be Tony, Natasha, and himself, he figured, and he was honored to have been able to have gained her trust so that she could tell him about that.

Steve really didn't know too much about her background. All he knew was that she'd been injected with the Serum by her father when she was young, and she'd been with SHIELD for close to 10 years; he had no idea how she'd been brought into SHIELD, let alone about her time in South America and the things she'd seen. He didn't need to know.

"It's no big deal," Grace said, shrugging it off and waving it away with her hand. Steve opened his mouth to say something, but a change in Grace's face made him look over his shoulder to see what she was looking at. His own face brightened when he saw Emma Carroll standing there waving at them.

"Hi, sweetheart," he said and beckoned her over. She crossed to him and stood next to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, guys, I just came to check in on everyone and see if you're ok," she said. "Hey, Grace, I just saw Tony in the lab with who I'm guessing is Dr. Banner?"

Grace gave Emma a tight smile and a short nod. Emma wasn't a SHIELD agent, and she didn't have all the training in reading people that Grace and Natasha did, but she could tell that something was off between Grace and Tony. She frowned at Grace, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Is everything ok with you guys?" she asked. "He looked pretty upset."

"Tony Stark is a jerk," Steve muttered, warranting a sharp glare from Grace. He shrugged. "It's true."

"_It's fine_," Grace said, emphasizing the fine and making it clear that Steve wasn't to say anything else. She smoothed her dark hair down with a hand and let out a sigh. Without warning, she felt a stinging sensation behind her eyelids, and she knew she was going to cry. She quickly looked up at the ceiling and squinted, hoping that she could keep the tears back. Why was it that she could take enormous amounts of physical pain without crying, but then she dumped her boyfriend, and she couldn't seem to hold the tears back? She cleared her throat and self-consciously ran her hand through her hair again.

"I bet this is all pretty boring for you," she said, changing the subject. "There are no injured people to take care of."

"I only hope it stays that way," Emma replied with a frown marring her face. Steve reached up and placed his large hand on top of hers.

"Hey, Grace and I have some stuff to do. I'll come find you later, ok?" he said, his voice soft as he looked up at her with his blue eyes. Grace suppressed the urge to vomit everywhere. She'd never been someone who was all about lovey-dovey PDA shit, but now that she'd just dumped Tony Stark, she _especially_ wasn't about all of it, and she just wanted to get away from it all. She kept her light eyes focused on one of the screens off to the side and ignored the sound of Steve and Emma giving each other a quick kiss.

"See you, Grace," Emma called gently, and Grace waved at her, offering a poor excuse for a smile as the nurse walked out to leave Grace and Steve to their mission, whatever it was. Grace's eyes flicked back to Steve as his attention returned to her.

"So what's this stuff we're going to do?" she asked. He gave her a dazzling smile that only Steve Rogers could give.

"We're going to go exploring. SHIELD's got to have secrets on this helicarrier. When Fury came to talk to me about the Tesseract, he knew that HYDRA's weapons were powered by the Tesseract. I'll bet you that he's got those weapons on board here somewhere, and I want to see if I'm right," he said quietly, leaning in so that no one else in the atrium could hear him. Grace frowned and nodded slightly.

"We'll have to check the weapons storage unit," she said, her tone leveling his.

"We have to figure out where that is first," Steve replied.

"I already know where that is," Grace answered and stood up.

"You know?" Steve asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Tony designed this helicarrier. I watched him draw up these plans, so I know where everything is. My clearance is also high enough so that I know where the weapons storage unit is anyway," she said with a shrug. "Though actually…" Her voice trailed off as she thought. "SHIELD wouldn't keep it in there where anyone could access it. They'd keep it in the Classified section."

"Classified?"

"HYDRA weapons aren't something that they'd want just anyone getting their hands on, so they'd put them away where no one could find them unless you had a high enough clearance."

"Which you have."

"Which _of course _I have. So that's where we'll go."

"Shall we, Agent?"

"Let's, Captain."

They began walking down the hall, and as they neared the lab, Grace could sense Tony so strongly that it was almost overwhelming. Funny how she'd never noticed how her senses picked up on him until she no longer wanted them to. Steve glanced in, and she felt his muscles tense.

"Did you see that?" he hissed.

"No," Grace deadpanned.

"Tony just zapped Banner." Before Grace could reply, he'd pressed a button allowing him access into the lab, and he stalked in. She braced herself for dealing with Tony, and she walked in after him.

"Hey!" Steve shouted.

"Nothing?" Tony asked, leaning in to see if his zap had affected Banner somehow. It hadn't. Steve's serious face was lined with anger and irritation as he swiftly crossed into the room, Grace trailing behind him.

"Are you nuts?" he demanded angrily.

"Jury's out," Tony brushed off. He was more than aware of Grace's presence in the room, but he didn't want to look at her. He continued acting as though he were fascinated by what Banner was doing.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" he asked in an impressed tone. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" The last suggestion brought a grin to Banner's face. Grace folded her arms across her chest, planting her feet wide.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, frustration and annoyance mingled in his tone. Tony glanced up, his eyes catching Grace, and he looked back at the army captain.

"Funny things are," he replied, repeating a phrase that Grace had once used. Her emotionless face gave him nothing as usual, her amber eyes just as fiery and freaky as they always were. Huh, some things never change, he thought to himself.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said sternly, sounding more like a dad than anything else. Grace cracked a smirk at the thought, and Tony caught it, only feeling more irritated that Steve had gotten some kind of reaction out of the stone-faced agent.

"No offense, Doc," Steve said politely, genuinely not wanting to offend the brilliant scientist. Banner smiled good-naturedly at the young man.

"Uh, it's alright," he said. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut," Tony announced gleefully, crossing behind the table that they were working at. "Look at Agent Marks here. Whenever she finds anything threatening, she turns into her own little version of a monster. She struts. If she can do it, you _definitely _can."

Grace's blood boiled in an unpleasantly furious way as she listened to Tony talk about her as if she were a test subject. He knew she hated it whenever he talked about her like that, and in the past, it usually hadn't been something he'd done on purpose. But now that they weren't together, he was purposely trying to goad her.

"We've already talked about it, Mr. Stark," she said sharply. Banner shot her a curious glance, but he nodded. Tony shrugged, brushing her statement off.

"You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve snapped.

"Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why _now_? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" Tony asked, one question stringing after the other. As angry as Grace was with him, she had to admit that he had a point. She shifted uncomfortably, her face still unreadable, as she thought about his questions. Tony glanced at her to see if he could get anything from her and mentally rolled his eyes when he saw that he couldn't.

"I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," he said.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, his expression making it clear that he wasn't sure whether Tony's theory was correct or not.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets. In a way, he's even more lethal than Agent Marks, not necessarily because of his skills but because of what he knows. It's bugging him, too." Tony gestured over to Banner as he popped some food into his mouth. "Isn't it?"

"Uhhh," Banner looked up and around him nervously. He obviously didn't want to brought into this conversation. "I just want to finish my work here, and—"

"Doctor?" Grace insisted. Banner stilled in resignation, looking hard at Grace and then around at the others surrounding him. He sighed and removed his glasses.

"'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube," he said slowly and evenly.

"I heard it," Steve said, nodding and encouraging the man to go on.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner pointed at Tony with the pen in his hand. "Well, uh, the two of you, I guess."

He gestured to Grace as well. His comment merited an offering of food from Tony's little bag that he was holding. Hesitantly, and slightly confused by the offering, Banner took some out and held it in his hand.

"Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news," Banner continued.

"The Stark Tower," Steve repeated. "That big, ugly—"

A glare from Tony and even Grace made him slow his words, but he really didn't give a shit, at least about what Tony thought of his opinion of the Tower. "—building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Banner explained. "That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Tony answered smugly. He glanced over at Steve. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"The Tower was my idea," Grace interjected. Tony's dark eyes shot over to her.

"Whose name is on it?" he asked.

"Your name. My idea," she said calmly. "Oh, I forgot. It's only 12% mine."

"Oh, here it comes. Now is where I start paying for it."

"Knock it off!" Steve exclaimed, glaring at Tony. "We have got to find the Cube, and we're not going to do it with the two of bickering and arguing like this."

Tony and Grace didn't look at each other, instead glancing anywhere else possible in the room in angry silence.

"Anyway, uh, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner asked, bringing everyone back to the task at hand. Grace sent out a mental wave of appreciation for the man. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony mumbled, crossing the room to one of the boards. Grace's amber eyes widened, and the anger flared up once more, making her eyes flame at him. She dashed across the room, furious.

"You're hacking SHIELD _again_?" she hissed. Tony nodded sharply.

"Uh, yeah, I want to know what I'm getting into," he said.

"This is exactly why Fury gives you shit, and it's the exact reason why he decided to make you consultant," she spat. Tony glanced down at her, but he regretted when he did. Her eyes were so goddamn weird that he couldn't get over them, and right now they wanted to murder him, and he had nowhere to hide. He stood his ground and put on his most apathetic face.

"Uh huh, yeah, well, look who's not just a consultant but, in fact, part of the team, sweetheart." His tone was condescending, and her eyes blazed even hotter, piercing him to the very depths of his soul. No wonder she was one of SHIELD's most deadly weapons, he thought.

"You're unbelievable," she snapped and ran a hand over her hair.

"I'm sorry. Did you say…" Poor Steve was lost again. She shot him a smoldering glare that wasn't actually meant for him because she was mad at Tony, and his blue eyes connected with her amber ones.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony said in a bored tone. "In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Unless, of course, Agent Marks would like to enlighten us and save us the wait time. Blueberry?" He offered Steve a blueberry, and the army captain shook his head.

All eyes were on Grace, and she folded her arms, her glare directed fully on Tony.

"Why would I have any idea what you're talking about?" she asked darkly.

"You're a SHIELD monkey, and you're always going on and on about your high clearance. So how 'bout it? What's SHIELD up to?" Tony asked, folding his arms in return.

"Yeah, how do we know you don't know something that you're not telling us?" Banner asked, surveying Grace more closely. Her eyebrows shot up into her forehead as she realized the implications of Tony's statement and Banner's suggestion.

"You really think that I'm in on this crazy plan you've come up with?" she asked in disbelief.

"I didn't say it. You did," Tony replied.

"You're implying that I know more than I'm letting on. Ok, yes, I have a high clearance that lets me in on way more information than the average SHIELD agent, but I'm not keeping anything from any of you," she protested. Steve held up his hand as Tony opened his mouth to reply.

"Lay off," he said in a tone that suggested no rebuttals. "She's telling the truth."

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Captain? You and Agent Marks have always been so close that _obviously_ you'd know when she's telling the truth and when she's not. She's _definitely _not a trained assassin who's every day job is to fool people and then kill them," Tony retorted, his voice dripping in sarcasm. Grace was in front of him in a flash, her body almost touching his. He was taken by surprise as he stared down at her, held in place by her mesmerizingly unnatural eyes and the proximity of her body to his. Her scent was around him, and he was tempted to close his eyes and breathe her in. If he stepped an inch forward, his body would be tightly against hers, but he didn't. He stared down at her as she stared up at him.

"Have I _ever _given you reason not to trust me?" she asked, her voice deathly low and just as serious. His dark brown eyes searched hers for anything suggesting that she was being untruthful, but he couldn't find anything.

"No," he quietly resigned. Grace stepped away from him, and his body ached to feel her absence. She looked over at Banner, scrutinizing him with her expressionless face.

"There's your answer," she simply said.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve said, glaring at Tony.

"An intelligence organization that _fears_ intelligence? Historically, not awesome," Tony quipped.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve announced to Grace and Banner. Grace nodded her agreement, her words not finding a way out of her throat. All she could think about was Tony and how close she'd been to him again. God, this was fucking killing her.

"This is a man who means to start a war," Steve continued, "and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them." His last comment was directed solely towards the billionaire.

"Following's not really my style," Tony said blandly and popped some more blueberries into his mouth.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve remarked with raised eyebrows.

"Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use?" Tony asked cruelly, enjoying the flash of irritation in Steve's clear blue eyes.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells funky to you," Banner said, a voice of reason in the room. Grace chewed on her bottom lip and nodded, conceding to Banner.

"Steve, I hate to admit it, but I think they might be onto something. I'm not saying they _are_, but they _might_ be," she said slowly.

Steve's eyes scanned over Tony, taking in the shorter man and challenging him coldly.

"Just find the Cube," he said shortly and turned, leaving the lab. Grace, without a second thought, turned and left with him. As soon as the doors slid shut behind her, leaving Tony and Banner still in the lab, she felt that she could breathe again.

"That was unpleasant on a thousand different levels," she said.

"You know I believe you, right?" Steve asked quietly. She nodded.

"I know. Let's go find those HYDRA weapons."

They walked down the hall with their mission fresh in their minds. Tony had a solid theory, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it, as well. What was SHIELD doing? What was their purpose in all of this? For the first time since she'd started working for SHIELD, she felt that she couldn't trust the organization that had saved her from herself.


	9. Time Bomb

**Yayy! Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, Guest, and MsRose91! Thank y'all SO much for the kind words and suggestions! They mean the world to me! Keep 'em coming, guys!**

**So I decided to give y'all a little treat and post two chapters in one day. I just got to writing, and sometimes I feel generous and post two ;)**

**Here's the big fight scene right before the explosion in the helicarrier! Again, please let me know what y'all think =)**

* * *

Chapter 9

Tony stared in disgust as he watched self-righteous Steve Rogers walk out of the lab. Truthfully, he wasn't thrilled to see Grace following along in the young man's trail; Grace wasn't a follower so why the hell was she following him about? Why didn't she want to stay there with him? Oh, right. He'd brought up something that he wasn't supposed to, and they'd fought, and now they were broken up. That's why she didn't want to stay there with him. Ever since she'd made her presence known in his Malibu lab two years ago, working in the lab without her nearby felt strange and unnatural. He shrugged the feeling off.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" he asked Banner, his voice laden with irritation. "I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

"Huh. The guy's not wrong about Loki. Your girl's backing him up all the way, too, and she looks like she knows what she's talking about," Banner said absent-mindedly as he punched around on one of the Stark tech boards that Tony had implemented into the design of the helicarrier. At Banner's comment, Tony turned sharply over his shoulder to shoot a glare at the scientist.

"She's not my girl," he said tersely, ignoring the painful stab in his stomach as he said the words out loud.

"Coulda fooled me," Banner mildly replied.

"We were fighting. Fighting doesn't equal love," Tony muttered in protest.

"Fighting might not equal love, but you wouldn't look like you'd just been stabbed through the heart when you fought if you didn't love her," Banner logically answered. "You know, I think it was the Ancient Greeks who had this myth about humans having two heads, four arms, four legs kind of thing, but one god felt threatened, thinking that humans were too powerful, so whatever god it was split the humans apart, and it's said that we spend the rest of our lives searching for that other half."

Tony stared at Bruce in disbelief, his dark brown eyes wide with surprise and his eyebrows raised high. He ran a hand through his hair.

"So? All I got out of that was a Greek mythology lesson," he said with a smirk. Banner finally turned over shoulder and looked hard at Tony.

"When you find that other half, you keep it," he said, and he turned back to the board, becoming lost in his work. Tony stood still and stared at the mind, wondering who was truly the wiser one.

* * *

Grace stood off to the side with her arms folded and a highly amused smile on her lips as she watched Steve pull the door open to the Classified Unit on the helicarrier. He was clearly putting all of his strength and effort into opening the door. When they'd arrived at the door, he'd just immediately jumped into pushing it instead of asking her if she could get them in. With a crunch of metal, the door spring free, and he slid it open.

"Steve?" she finally spoke up. He turned and looked back at her.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I could've opened that." She held up her ID card that gave her clearance. His face fell as he looked it, and then he rolled his eyes in resignation.

"Too late for that now, I guess," he said with a shrug. "Come on. Do you know where they'd keep the HYDRA weapons?"

She followed in behind him and looked around at all of the crates that surrounded them. Shiny metal was everywhere she looked. SHIELD had to go with the metal case route; they didn't believe in wood for some reason. She smirked as she looked about her, and she shrugged.

"No idea. They wouldn't post a label on the front or anything because that could easily fall into the wrong hands." Without any warning, she swiftly leapt towards the railing of the second floor, swinging herself up and over. She gazed down at Steve, his expression one of being impressed. He quickly followed suit.

"Show off," he mumbled when he reached where she was standing.

"Well, Captain, let's get looking," she said and began opening cases. Time passed, though she wasn't sure how long, but it was getting tiresome. There was so much shit on this helicarrier, and half of the shit that she was finding didn't even look like it needed to be classified. Then again, Grace knew that anything could be anything, and what something might look like could actually be a different thing entirely. She knew that too well from experience. Bones could be knives, and leaves could be rafts. Anything could be anything.

"Grace!" Steve called quietly from his position. She glanced around the corner, peering at him. He was kneeling on the ground in front of one of the silver cases, his forehead wrinkled, and his mouth pursed tightly. He looked up at her and beckoned her over with a gesture of his head. After making sure that everything was in its original place, she carefully closed the lid of the case that she'd been rifling through. She crossed over to him and knelt next to him. When she saw the contents of the case he was gazing into, her eyebrows rose, and she let out a low whistle.

"Well," she said. "I think we've found the jackpot."

"And I think SHIELD has a lot of explaining to do," Steve muttered, an edge entering his voice. "Maybe Tony's theory isn't so crazy after all."

"After finding this, I'd say that SHIELD better have some answers because we sure as hell have questions. Grab a weapon. Let's go show this to Tony and Banner."

She and Steve quickly grabbed up a HYDRA gun each, and they hightailed it out of there. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she held the weapon in her hands. What was SHIELD doing with this? Why had they brought this on board? From her research, she'd been able to tell that HYDRA and the Tesseract were very closely linked together, but she hadn't been able to pinpoint how exactly. Tony hadn't either, and they'd talked over every possible solution together, coming up with nothing at the end of it.

They passed agents in the hall, but no one gave them strange looks. Everything was so fucking strange these days that two people carrying giant guns didn't look out of the ordinary to them.

"SHIELD has to be making weapons," Grace mumbled quietly to Steve. He nodded shortly back in agreement.

"Of course. Why else do they have these on here? Why else is it so important that they get the Tesseract back? This is unlimited power we're talking about here. _Unlimited_."

"That's a whole arsenal of weapons for SHIELD."

"Exactly."

They neared the lab, and Grace saw Tony looking frustrated and pissed off. Her nerves were zinging off the walls as his presence consumed her. The strength of it made her miss him, and she desperately wanted to walk over to him and wrap her arms around him. Touching him was one of her favorite things to do; she wasn't too big on PDA because it just didn't seem necessary, but she loved reaching out and touching him to make sure that he was really there, that he was really hers. Her solar plexus tightened, and she breathed deeply and slowly to relax the stinging the threatened tears. It was then that she caught sight of Fury already in the lab, and she frowned. Glancing up at Steve, she saw that he had the same reaction on his face.

"What _is_ Phase 2?" Tony asked. They'd all walked into the middle of a discussion, and she wanted to know what the discussion was. Hell, she wanted to know what Phase 2 was, as well.

She and Steve slammed their HYDRA weapons onto an empty table in the lab, drawing attention to themselves. Seeming to have forgotten that he was mad at her and a single man, Tony shot Grace a questioning glance. She sent back a look telling him not to worry about it.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons," Steve said, causing Tony to look at him, his gaze darkening slightly as he observed the young blonde man. Steve caught Tony's eye and gave him a contemptuous glare. "Sorry. Computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does _not _mean that we're making—"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony shouted over Fury's voice. "What, were you lying?" He swiveled his screen to reveal plans for a new weapon. Grace's amber eyes went wide with shock as she stared at it.

"That's what this is all about?" she asked. "Weapons? The Tesseract is being used to make _weapons_, and that's why SHIELD wants it so badly?"

"Stand down, Agent," Fury said threateningly.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said darkly. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Thor and Natasha stormed in at that exact moment, both looking shaken and unhappy about something.

"Great, the Brady Bunch is all here," Grace muttered to Steve under her breath.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked, directing his question towards Natasha as soon as she entered. The redhead flashed him a look that Grace knew meant serious business, and she knew that something had happened to cause Natasha to be this on edge.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked calmly and rationally. Banner raised his eyebrows in surprise, and he let out a quick, heaving laugh.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," he said tersely.

"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha said, her green eyes flashing as she took a few steps forward.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" he shot back.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Banner said adamantly.

"You all knew what you were getting into by asking him to come on board," Grace snapped. Natasha shot her a warning look, but Grace ignored it. "Everyone was well aware of the risk."

"Thank you, Agent. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," he said, pointing to a diagram on the screen. Grace exchanged a look with Steve; so their theory had been right after all. Well, technically it was Tony's theory, but they'd expanded on it, so she thought it was only fair to take part of the credit. As Tony would say, she deserved 12% of the credit.

"Because of him," Fury snapped and pointed to Thor. Everyone's eyes landed on the blonde god, who looked surprised to be singled out as the cause of something so serious as the building of weapons of mass destruction.

"Me?" he asked.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but are hopelessly, _hilariously_, outgunned," Fury explained.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor protested, looking genuinely offended by what Fury had just said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury countered. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve retorted smartly.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. _And _his allies," Thor challenged. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Grace spat out in disbelief.

"You forced our hand," Fury said, still maintaining a calm demeanor. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony interrupted suddenly from seemingly nowhere. Grace turned to look back at him. He looked cool, calm, and at ease in his Black Sabbath t-shirt and his hands tucked into his pockets. His dark hair was styled just right so that it looked windblown enough without looking crazy. She ached to run her fingers through his soft, thick hair, and she folded her arms so that she'd stop thinking about her hands.

"Because that always calms everything right down," Tony sarcastically finished.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury challenged.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep in—"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony held up his hand to stop Steve from going any further with his statement. His dark eyes were hard as he glared at the young man.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted. Grace put her hand on Steve's arm.

"Steve," she said in a low warning tone.

"Don't tell me you're going to stick up for him now!" Steve turned to stare at her, his blue eyes fiery and passionate. She screwed her mouth to the side.

"I'm not sticking up for him. Just stop, ok?" She ran a hand over her hair in frustration.

"You deserve better than this, Grace. You deserve a hell of a lot better than this guy," Steve spat at her. Her amber eyes remained just as blank and empty as her face, and she didn't say anything in response. She could feel Tony's eyes on her, begging her to say something, waiting for her to say anything, but she didn't give in. She just stared at Steve and refused to give in.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor snidely commented.

"_Excuse me_, did we come to _your _planet and blow stuff up?" Fury had just about had it, and his irritation was really beginning to get through his calm, explanatory demeanor.

"You treat your champions with such mistreat," Thor accused.

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha asked, staring in frustration at them. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Banner sounded mildly amused.

"We all are," Grace answered before Natasha could.

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees? And Captain, you think you can move in on my girl?" Tony snapped.

"I'm not moving in on anyone, Stark, and last time I checked, she dumped you," Steve retorted.

"Wait, Grace, you broke up with Tony?" Natasha asked.

"Good job telling everyone, Agent," Tony said sarcastically to Grace.

"Stark, so help me, God, if you make one more wisecrack, and if you don't back off of Grace—"

"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Tony shouted, pointing at Steve.

"Show some respect," Steve spat.

"Respect what?"

"To Grace, Banner, everyone in this room."

"I show plenty of respect to people who deserve it, Rogers."

"Tony—"

"Agent, if you're going to lecture me, we're not together anymore, so I don't have to pretend to listen to it."

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor said. Grace rolled her amber eyes, and she glared at Thor.

"I swear, if the next motherfucking thing out of your mouth sounds like another poorly written Shakespeare line, I will lose it," she hissed.

"Shakespeare?" Thor asked in confusion.

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Banner mumbled. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb.

"_You _need to step away," Fury said threateningly.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony called out in frustration and in defense of Banner. Grace redirected her glare to him.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" she snapped.

"If he wants to beat some things up, he should be able to!" Tony shouted.

"Then why don't _I _let off a little steam, too, huh? Come at me."

"I'm not going to come at you."

"Exactly."

"It's different. Let him get it out of his system," Tony remarked and clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder. Steve immediately shoved it off angrily.

"You know damn well why he can't. Back off!" he threatened.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony retorted in a low, dark tone.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Grace shouted.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor," Steve said quietly, completely ignoring Grace and circling Tony the way a shark circles its bait. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony replied smartly.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve's blue eyes were made purely of icy fire in that moment. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just _cut _the wire." Tony's own eyes were blazing as they bored back into Steve's, promising all kinds of challenges to the young army captain. Steve grinned and looked around at the others as if he were checking in to make sure that everyone else was still watching. Grace's muscles were locked up as the two of them stared each other down. What the fuck was happening? How did they get like this?

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve hissed.

"A hero? Like _you_? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Tony took a step forward, officially challenging Steve. Grace fought the urge to leap forward between the two men and pull them off of each other. In a way, she was frightened of Tony. She'd never seen him look as angry or as lethal as he did just then, and the sight of it made her cautious. Her nerves began to bubble slightly, and she forced herself to breathe slowly to get them to calm down. She wasn't in danger. She wasn't in danger. Tony would never hurt her. He might hate her right now, but he would never hurt her.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Steve was serious. He meant business, and it was written all over his face. Thor's laughter interrupted them, breaking the tension. Grace snapped her head to look over at the blonde god as he stood there mocking them.

"You people are so petty…and tiny," he remarked. At his comment, she snapped.

"Ok, that's it, I've fucking had it with you!" she shouted.

"Grace, let it go," Natasha said quietly. Grace's amber eyes flicked over to Natasha, anger searing through them, but she didn't say anything, and she didn't move.

"Yeah, this is a team," Banner sarcastically interjected.

"Agent Marks, would you escort back to his—"

"Where?" Banner interrupted Fury. "You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case—"

"In case you needed to kill me," Banner said, placing emphasis on every word. "But you can't. I know. I tried."

Banner's words caught Grace by surprise, and without thinking, she knowingly looked over at Tony. The look on Tony's face struck her heart in a thousand different ways, and it shattered into a thousand different pieces. His brown eyes were wide with an understanding that Grace wished he didn't have. She closed her eyes and looked away. Some things even she didn't want to know.

"I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out," Banner quietly explained. "So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Grace saw his subtle grabbing of the scepter, and she instantly put her hand on the gun that was holstered to her hip. She sensed Fury and Natasha do the same thing, too, their guns located at the same place.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said quietly, "put down the scepter."

For the first time, Banner seemed to be aware that he was holding it, and he stared at it in almost a confused way, as if he were surprised at how it had ended up in his hand. He looked around at the people surrounding him, trying to find an explanation when a beeping sound alerted everyone.

"Got it," Fury said.

"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Banner quipped and hurried over to the computer to read the results, Tony trailing behind him.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I could get there fastest," Tony interjected.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor argued.

"You're not going alone!" Steve snapped, and he grabbed Tony's arm as Tony tried to exit the room. Tony paused, his dark eyes searing as he glanced down at Steve's physical contact with his arm. The fucking nerve.

"You're gonna stop me?" he spat and shoved Steve's hand off of him.

"Put on the suit. Let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

The computer continued beeping, and Grace's senses were becoming overwhelmed as she struggled to find something singular to focus on. Tony and Steve were fighting, and that was calling her, but the beeping on the computer, and the horrified look on Dr. Banner's face was also calling her, and there was just so much fucking noise.

Suddenly, an explosion on the helicarrier rattled everyone. Grace was shot plummeting downwards, and she crashed into the floor. Her nerves went white-hot, and her eyes were black when she opened them. Frantically, she looked around her as she tried to collect where she was and what the situation was. Red hair. Natasha. Thrashing. Dr….Dr. Banner? Grace identified the figure rolling on the ground as Dr. Banner as he fought to keep the Hulk under control. Fear struck her heart, and for the first time in a long time, she was terrified. She was going to need every ounce of her survival skills to get her out alive. She needed to come out alive. Dr. Banner let out a roar. It was showtime.


	10. Reconciliation

**Oh my goodness! Shoutouts to ILuvOdie, bluemermaidpitch, Uruvia, jennie68, akt15 (welcome back, btw!), BelleBomb, and Eisette! This is the most feedback I've had on this story, and it was amazing! You guys don't know how much it means to read what you have to say about each chapter. Thank you all SO much for the reviews!**

**Some housekeeping!**

**I received a question about why Steve and Grace are so close. Not sure if everyone's read my first two stories, but it sets up some background info, including why they're close. Grace got her own version of the Serum injection when she was young. She and Steve can relate to each other about what it's like to be a Super Soldier/Super Agent. Steve knows that she understands what it's like to undergo that transition, and it's something that they have in common. He doesn't have ANY romantic feelings for her - he saves all that love stuff for Emma ;) He does take a big brother role in her life, though, and he really hates that she's with Tony because he can't fucking stand Tony. Hope that cleared up any questions!**

**Smut will happen at some point in this story. If you've read my other stories, you know I can't write a fic without putting at least one explicit smut scene in there. The rating will someday get switched to M ;)**

**_Also. Last part but THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS A/N._ Once I finish this fic, I'm going to have to wait for Iron Man 3 to come out on DVD so I can get the exact dialogue. (Btw, I've already started planning how I'm going to handle putting in Grace, and I'm having a blast coming up with all these ideas heh heh heh) I want to run some ideas off you guys. I can either continue Grace and Tony's story with another fic following the Avengers, and it'll be a completely original, 100% made up by me plot, or I can take a month or so off until Iron Man 3 is released on DVD, and I'll pick up writing from there. What do you guys want? Do you want a totally ****original story that takes place between the Avengers and Iron Man 3, or do you want to wait for Iron Man 3? Please, please, please leave your opinions, whether it's in the reviews or a PM. (I always answer PMs) ****Ugh, sorry this A/N was so damn long! This chap is a bit short, but hopefully y'all will like it. Let me know!**

* * *

Chapter 10

Tony saw Grace fall through the floor, and his heart stopped. His muscles tensed as his first instinct was to run after her, but rationally, he knew that she was ok. If could survive a bullet to the brain, she could survive falling through a floor…right?

"Put on the suit," Steve said, this time not challenging Tony at all. Tony nodded quickly in agreement.

"Yeah."

_Grace, be ok_, he thought. _Be ok_.

On the floor, Grace was sprawled out, trying to capture her breath. The wind had been knocked out of her in the fall, and she needed to move if she wanted to get out of there alive. Bruce was struggling to keep control as the Hulk threatened to take over. With horror, she realized that Natasha was only a few feet away from the Hulk, and she was trapped under some debris from the ceiling falling in. Grace ran to help the redhead as Natasha tried to keep Bruce under control.

Grace's senses were alive, and she could hear, smell, and see the tiniest details. Her brain was on alert to the utmost degree, alerting her of the smallest possible threat. However, her brain and her own rationality could agree that the biggest threat was Bruce Banner.

"We're ok," Natasha said frantically, sounding completely not ok. "We're ok, right?"

"We're fine, we're fine," Grace snapped as she struggled to lift the heavy debris off of Natasha's leg. Bruce was writhing, his fists clenching and unclenching, groans and roars erupting from his mouth as the monster was close to being unleashed. Panic was metallic in the back of her mouth, but she fought it down; she had to get Natasha out.

"Doctor?" Natasha called. "Bruce? You got to fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're going to be ok. Listen to me."

Two medics rounded the corner, and Grace's throat tightened when she see Emma leading them.

"Are you hurt?" Emma shouted out. Grace frantically whipped her hands around, signaling them to go.

"Go, get out of here!" she hissed. Emma's clear sea-colored eyes went wide as she realized that something was severely wrong, but she quickly came to a halt and backed up, pushing her fellow medics out of the way.

"We're going to be ok, all right?" Natasha's voice was straining to sound calm, and it was sounding anything but. "You, me, and Grace, we're going to come out of this. I swear on my life I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never, ever—"

"YOUR LIFE?" Bruce roared. A noise threatened to spill out of Grace's mouth as she tried to lift the debris. Godfuckingdammit, what heavy material had Tony designed the helicarrier out of? She took a breath and pulled hard, finally freeing Natasha. Natasha scrambled to her feet and backed up so that she was even with Grace, standing close to her without quite touching her. She knew better than to touch Grace; the amber-eyed agent was in survival mode, and any touch could be construed as an attack. Natasha's green eyes flicked over to Grace, the fear evident.

Then it happened. Grace and Natasha stood in horror as they watched Bruce slowly burst into the enormous green rage-monster that Tony had so fondly mentioned. Bruce's purple shirt split open as his muscles expanded, a roar coming from the monster's throat. Neither agent could move. Bruce lost his footing and fell over the edge of the deck onto the floor below them. He turned and made eye contact with Natasha.

"Bruce," she whispered. There was no hiding it; Agent Romanoff was terrified, and she wasn't sure how the hell she was going to get out.

"We need to go," Grace snapped quietly. Then, with a deafening roar, the change was complete. The monster ripped off the remaining pieces of his shirt and stood, bellowing to the skies. Grace could only stand and stare, her survival instincts seemingly having abandoned her. Her brain was a fuzzy mess; everything was too clear and too glossed over for her to focus on anything, and the panic began to build up again.

"Go!" Grace shouted. They took a few steps and then stopped, turning to stare again at what had replaced Bruce Banner. The Hulk looked back over his shoulder at them. Grace shoved Natasha, and she began to run. Thundering footsteps and more roaring signified that the Hulk was, indeed, chasing them. Her senses went into overload. She could feel every vibration, _hear _every vibration. She could smell the scent of sweat radiating off the creature, and the rancid smell stung the insides of her nostrils. She could see the stitches of Natasha's SHIELD uniform expand and contract with every running step that she took.

They ran as fast as they could up the stairs. Natasha flipped over a railing and landed onto the mesh grating of the landing before continuing to run. Grace followed suit, but she was a step too late. The Hulk's hand closed around the grate, and it fell out from beneath her. For the second time that day, she was sent plummeting to the ground. She hit the ground hard, but due to her Serum, she was unharmed, only dazed and out of breath. As best as she could, she fought to gain control of her body and rise to her feet, but she was too slow. The giant green hand of the Hulk came up, sweeping her off the ground. Her first instinct was to scream, but she stifled it, trying to show no fear in her face as the monster brought her up.

"Grace!" She could hear Natasha screaming her name, but the Hulk had his focus. He brought the agent, tiny in his hand up to his face and growled.

"Bruce, I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Listen to me, Bruce, I know you're—"

Without warning, the Hulk had thrown her across the room. She heard Natasha screaming her name. That was the last thing Grace heard before she slammed into the wall with a sickening thud and falling to the ground, lifeless.

* * *

Grace's head ached, and her limbs were sore as she drifted out of her foggy black world. Why was it so damn bright? She blinked her eyes slowly, at first not recognizing her surroundings. She was in a small, dark grey room on a hospital bed with an IV hooked up to her arm. Without needing to touch her face, she could feel a bandage on her temple close to her forehead that stretched down across most of the right side of her face. It hurt like hell. She blinked again, and she finally saw what she'd missed when she'd opened her eyes.

Tony.

He was sitting right next to her with a calm look on his face. Immediately, she noticed the absence of his hand on hers or anywhere on her body. He wasn't touching her comfortingly at all, just sitting there and staring at her. A small break in her heart happened as she realized he wasn't doing anything but sitting and staring.

"Well, you're lucky," he said dryly. "Made it out with a concussion and a nasty cut on your face that Nurse Carroll took care of quite beautifully. Seventeen stitches."

She didn't say anything. He stared at her with that same calm look. She could see that he wanted to say a thousand different other things, but he didn't say them.

"You've been knocked out for about 24 hours now. Your Serum saved you from being killed. Again. Your time being unconscious did a lot of the repairing. Just in case you're wondering why you aren't in pain." He ran his hand through his hair, an action that he usually did whenever he was stressed. Grace instantly picked up on it.

"I'm in pain," she said. A tightness crossed his face, darkening his features. It killed him to hear that she was in pain; he desperately wanted to take away all the pain in the world for her. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and didn't say anything.

"Is everyone ok?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah! Good news is we got Barton back, and he's currently being de-hypnotized by the redheaded traitor, though I guess after what she did she no longer deserves that title. Bad news is Loki got away, Thor got trapped in the cage and was deported somewhere, and Hulk got mad and jumped off the helicarrier onto a jet, and that was the last we saw of him."

Grace frowned.

"What did Natasha do?" she asked.

"Oh, she saved your life," he said casually. "Hulk was coming for a second go at you, but she distracted him. He would've killed you."

Grace didn't know why she felt overwhelmingly touched by hearing that. She and Natasha were co-workers; it was what they were supposed to do. There had been plenty of times in past missions when Grace had saved Natasha's life in similar situations, but for some reason, hearing that Natasha had stepped in during such a horrific moment and saved her life made her want to cry. She fought the tears, though, instead just nodding and accepting it.

"Well, it's good that we didn't lose anyone," she said. Tony's face stilled, and she knew that something was wrong. Her stomach dropped out, and she frowned.

"What?" she asked quietly. Tony hesitated, but she wasn't going to have it. "Tony, _what_?"

He took a breath and wiped his hand over his face. Running his hand through his hair again, he looked up at her, his eyes regretful and unhappy.

"When Loki escaped, he killed Coulson," he said slowly.

The way that people react to the news of a loved one's death says a lot about them as people. Some people collapse to their knees and weep so loudly that there's no mistaking that that person lost someone dear to them. Others don't shed a tear and act as if nothing is wrong. Others, still yet, will become angry and swear vengeance. Grace did none of those things. She reacted in the strongest way that she had in the whole time that Tony had known her.

"He was like a father to me," she said softly. The shock was evident in her amber eyes, and for a moment, she was frozen. As his words melted into her brain, her understanding kicked in, and tears slowly and silently began to run down her face. He couldn't move as he watched her cry; his heart was ripping out of his chest, and he longed to take her in his lap and wrap himself around her. He longed to take her pain away from her, even if it meant taking it onto himself. Slowly, she drew her hands to her face, and she silently put her face in her hands, the inaudible sobs racking her shoulders.

Taking the risk of being attacked, Tony crossed to the bed and sat on the edge of it. He reached out and gently took her in his arms. If anything, Coulson's death had been an unpleasant wake up call to Tony. Anyone could be taken away at the drop of a hat. Hearing about Coulson's being killed and then hearing about Grace's crumpled body in the lower hold of the helicarrier hadn't been pleasant for him.

He'd stood in shock when Fury made the announcement that Agent Phil Coulson had been killed. Entering the helicarrier, he'd walked around feeling strange and detached from the situation. His emotions were at a standstill after everything had happened within the past 24 hours. He'd learned that Grace had nearly killed Natasha, Grace had broken up with him, and now Coulson was dead.

"Fury, Agent Marks needs immediate medical attention; I repeat: _immediate medical attention_." The urgent voice of Natasha Romanoff had come into his ear. He'd gone totally still, his body going numb now as well.

"What's her 20, Agent Romanoff?" Fury had snapped quickly.

"The lower hold of the carrier where we fell when the explosion happened. The Hulk got her pretty badly."

Right then and there, Tony Stark had resolved to make things right again. So he wrapped his arms around Grace, and she let him do it. She made no sound as she cried, silently shaking in his arms. Soon he was kissing her hair, stroking it softly and murmuring words of comfort to her. She leaned into him and let him hold her. Her sobs slowed, and soon she was simply resting into the warmth of him with her eyes closed and her head throbbing.

"I'm sorry," Tony said. Two words. He felt her contract in his arms as she curled up closer into him.

"I'm sorry, too," she whispered back. Tony lowered his lips to the top of her head and kissed her.

"I need you. Jesus, Grace, I need you," he murmured, grasping her to him. She responded by wrapping her arms around him. He closed his eyes. Her touch was all that he needed. Her careful, steady hands on him was all he ever needed, and if he hadn't known that before, he certainly knew it now.

"I love you," he whispered, his voice hoarse.

In response, she buried her head—the uninjured part of it—in his chest right next to his arc reactor. The light from it was just as comforting as it'd ever been, reassuring her that she was where she needed to be. Her head ached as the remnants of the concussion lingered, and her heart ached at the loss of the one real father figure she'd ever had in her life, but she was where she felt safest, and that made everything hurt a little less. God, that was what she needed more than anything at that moment: to feel safe. And there was no place safer in the world than to be wrapped in the arms of Tony Stark.

She pulled back and gazed into his chocolate brown eyes for a few moments, her own amber eyes slightly red and swollen from crying. He removed his hands from around her waist and gently placed them on either side of her head before kissing her. She deepened the kiss, pressing her body more firmly against his, wanting more from him. Suddenly, he inhaled sharply and pulled back a tiny bit, holding her away from him.

"You're injured," he said softly with a wince on his face. "Don't get me wrong because I want to do all kinds of things with you right now, but you're still mildly concussed, and I just really don't want to hurt you."

She paused and smiled, touched by his thoughtfulness. Tony Stark rarely turned down sex, and the only times that he had in the past had been when she was injured. She kissed his mouth roughly and then pulled back. Running a hand through his hair, she reveled in the softness of it. Goddamn him for having the world's most perfect hair.

"I love you, Anthony Edward Stark," she said quietly. He closed his eyes as he listened to her say his full name. Ever since he'd been a little boy, he'd hated being called by his full name. In his mind, he was Tony. Tony Stark. He would've been thrilled had his parents thought to give him just those two names. However, they hadn't given him the simple but solid name of Tony Stark; they'd given him Anthony Edward Stark. He'd grown up hating it, hating hearing anyone else say it, but whenever Grace said it, it sounded as if she were whispering a prayer. She said it because she loved him.

His chest swelled with emotion for the woman in front of him. Every day she proved to him just how incredible she was, even though he didn't need proof of it. She just did it unconsciously. Yesterday when he'd heard that she'd been attacked by the Hulk, he'd never felt more afraid. He wasn't an idiot; he'd very closely studied the clips and the reports on Bruce Banner's alter ego, and he knew that very few people—if any—survived an attack from the Hulk. Yet, Grace had surprised him again because there she was in his arms, very much alive.

"Are you ok?" he asked her.

"Physically, yes. Emotionally, not so sure," she admitted. "Coulson was more of a father to me than my biological father. I'm sure that goes without saying." Her eyes and face were clear as she spoke steadily about a man who had meant so much to her. Tony could only admire her strength as she held herself together. It didn't go without his notice that she wasn't wearing her blank slate. Her face was open, allowing her feelings to be shown without hiding them underneath her infamous expression. There was a sadness to her eyes that he'd never seen before, the dampness causing the amber to shine even brighter than it usually did.

"I'll be ok, though," she said with an assured nod. "How was he killed?"

"Grace, don't do this to yourself," Tony protested. She pressed her lips together in a thin line and shook her head firmly, her willingness to not take no for an answer showing through.

"I need to know," she said.

"Loki's scepter. He did that thing where he evaporated or whatever out of thin air, and he stabbed Coulson from behind."

"He has it coming for him," Grace replied steadily. There was no malice or vengeance in her voice. She stated it calmly as if she were talking about what she'd had for lunch instead of the fate that would befall Loki. "What's our next plan of action?"

"Don't know. Fury wanted to wait until you were conscious and medically approved to join in the conversation."

"Go get Emma, would you? I need to see how this scar's going to look on my face."

"You won't have a scar. You have super healing skin, remember?"

"I was attempting to make a joke."

"Right. I'll go get Emma."

As Tony kissed her quickly on the forehead and left to go retrieve the nurse, Grace relished the familiar feeling that still existed between the two of them. Even in this moment of grieving, he was still himself, and there was that natural banter that had always taken place. She needed familiarity, and she found that in Tony. Gingerly, she pressed a hand to the side of her face to see how much it hurt. She winced and took her hand away as she reluctantly accepted that it hurt much more than she wanted it to. She couldn't sit in this hospital bed while Loki ran free to cause his path of chaos. She refused to stand down, and she would be damned if anyone tried to make her. They didn't call her Scorpion for nothing.


	11. Origin

**Major shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, lcb117, hockeygurl39, Uruvia, BelleBomb, d-aisy-vibe, and MsRose91 for reviewing! Keep them coming because I love reading what y'all have to say!**

**Lots of love and many thank yous to the people who messaged me with thoughts on my next project. So far, everyone has said that they want a "between" story, so I've officially decided to write that first. (The fabulous hockeygurl39 told me how to find Iron Man 3 before it comes out on DVD, but when I get dialogue from the movie, I use the subtitles so I can pause the action and write down what's on the screen, so I decided to wait a bit.) It won't be anywhere as long as my past fics have been. It'll be, at the most, 10 chapters. If I write this fic between the Avengers and Iron Man 3, I'd like to focus on Grace dealing with her past because there's a lot of stuff she needs to confront. (I know it sounds like it'd be super angsty, but I promise it wouldn't be. It's hard to keep humor out of a Tony and Grace story haha) So let me know if that sounds interesting to you.**

**This chapter isn't as exciting as the past ones have been, nor is it as exciting as the future ones will be since we're leading up to the fight, but whatever. Let me know your thoughts! You guys are just the sweetest, and I really am so appreciative of all the support you've given me throughout this whole process 3**

* * *

Chapter 11

As soon as Grace received her medical clearance, she was more than eager to get back to work, much to Tony's chagrin. Medically, there was nothing wrong with her, aside from the cut to her face and some sore muscles; all evidence of concussion had disappeared, leaving her free to join the rest of the team. It was always hard for Tony to remember to take a step back when it came to her safety. Grace was a strong woman, and he had to consciously remind himself not to harp on her or look out for her too much. She knew what she was doing. She knew her limitations.

"I want to see where Coulson was killed," she said suddenly, jolting him out of his thoughts. She was fully dressed in a clean SHIELD uniform. Emma had removed the bandage off of her face, so the cut was exposed, the skin already starting to heal. Her long dark brown hair was swept back into its standard braid, signaling that she was working. Tony noticed that when she was at home she never wore her hair in a single braid like that, and he knew that it wasn't coincidence. She liked to separate home and work as much as she could, as hard as that often was. It seemed like she was always bringing work home with her, though Tony guessed that he couldn't complain since he was guilty of doing the same exact thing.

He ran a hand through his hair and stared firmly at her. His first instinct was to tell her no, but he knew that she wouldn't take that for an answer. Her gaze was even and determined as she looked back at him, clearly not about to give up without a fight. He sighed.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly. She hesitated for a millisecond, but then she nodded. A flicker of worry passed through her amber eyes so quickly that Tony wondered if it had even been there in the first place. He put a hand on the small of her back and began guiding her down the hall towards the area of the helicarrier that Coulson had last laid eyes on before being impaled with Loki's scepter. Tony's senses were nowhere near as finely tuned as Grace's were, but he could feel the anxiety radiating off her as they walked down the hall. The both of them were silent. Nothing felt appropriate to say as they walked towards their solemn destination.

Time passed, and before they knew it, they were there. Tony slowed his pace as they neared the area. Grace could smell the lingering scent of blood, and it made her sick to her stomach. She paused and closed her eyes, overwhelmed by the strength of the smell. Instantly, Tony was by her side. He didn't touch her—he knew better than to do that—but he was close.

"You don't have to do this," he said. She opened her eyes and steadily gazed at him.

"But I do," she replied softly. Tony understood, and he didn't say anything more. As much as he wanted to protect her from the pain she was going to face, he knew that he couldn't. He would never be able to. She wasn't one of his cars that he could keep locked safely in his garage where nothing could happen to it. She was a remarkable person who could protect herself.

He watched her walk quietly and slowly on the deck that surrounded where the cage had once been. Her footsteps were soft, her eyes scanning about her. The bloodstain was still on the wall, and it caught her eye immediately. For a moment, she couldn't breathe. Her heart seemed to explode out of her chest, and her eyes began stinging, and she thought she was going to cry, but she breathed in and out until the feeling went away. Without having consciously done it, she realized that she was gripping the railing behind her, and her knuckles had turned white. The smell of blood was overpowering.

Tony was next to her; she turned her head towards him in hopes that his scent would overpower Coulson's blood. Taking a deep breath, she moved in closer to Tony and pressed her forehead into his shoulder, her nose against his bicep. He didn't move or say anything. He simply let her rest her head against him.

"Are you ok?" he asked. She nodded and pulled away. Turning around, she walked further away from the bloodstain and faced towards where the cage would've been had Loki not dropped it from the sky. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared unseeingly at the empty space.

"We can't just sit here," she said.

"I know. We need to get out there and find Loki," Tony replied, crossing to join her.

"We need to find him, and we need to kill him." The tone of her voice was lethal. Tony had never heard her sound quite like this, and he wasn't sure whether to feel threatened or somewhat turned on by how in charge she was. He mentally kicked himself for thinking of his penis at a time like this.

"We also need to get our hands on the Tesseract," he murmured. "On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of it being put back in SHIELD's loving care."

"I'm not fond of the idea, either, but we need to at least get it back from Loki. As much as I dislike Thor, we need to back him and let him take the Cube back to Asgard with him," she said. Tony shot her a funny glance.

"Yeah, I noticed you held some hostilities towards him. Why? Aren't a fan of the Medieval Knight Meets California Surf Bum look?" he quipped. A small grin played at the corners of Grace's mouth, and she shot him a look back.

"He's superfluous," she replied.

"Oo, good SAT word, Agent."

"Thanks, I don't try."

Without saying a word, Tony leaned over and kissed her lightly on the mouth.

"We'll get the Cube back. We'll beat Loki," he said, the look in his eyes changing from playful to serious.

"I know we will," she murmured, staring at his mouth and then redirecting her gaze back into the open space. "Did I ever tell you hot I got my call name?"

Surprised, Tony raised his eyebrows at her change of subject, particularly about what she was changing the subject _to_. Ever since she'd woken up, he'd been especially careful to avoid mentioning anything to do with her past before she'd landed up in his living room on a mission. Seeing how things had turned out the last time he'd brought up her past, he wasn't too keen on repeating it. He frowned in confusion but shook his head.

"No," he replied.

"Well, for starters, my eyes are similar in color to the color of an Arizona bark scorpion. That's not the main reason, though. Just a cool fact I thought I'd share. Anyway, I got the name because when I was first brought into SHIELD, I would physically lash out when I attacked people, but I would do it in such a way that it would look like I wasn't going to, like a scorpion. We have to use that approach with Loki. Make it look like we're not going to attack but then get him at the last moment," she said.

"He's expecting us to attack," Tony replied with a frown.

"But he knows we don't know where he is. We can't storm out and make a big scene of it because he's expecting _that_. He's expecting the helicarrier, aircrafts, major weapons."

"If only we knew the hell he was, we could give him that," Tony mumbled. Grace didn't say anything back. They both were silent, staring at the empty space in front of them, wishing that things had happened differently.

"Coulson was the one who suggested my call name," Grace said suddenly, her voice quiet. The mood changed, and neither of them said anything as they thought about the agent who'd just been taken from them. It didn't escape Grace's notice that she mourned the death of Agent Coulson more than she had the death of her own father. Footsteps down the hall signaled to her that Steve was walking towards them. She didn't turn her head when he entered the room.

"Was he married?" Steve asked softly.

"No," Tony replied.

"There was a, uh, cellist, I think," Grace spoke up.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, the sincerity of his words evident in his voice. She nodded at the open space in front of her. "He seemed like a good man."

Tony scoffed.

"He was an idiot," he said. Grace's head snapped towards him.

"Tony," she said in a low warning tone.

"Why? For believing?" Steve frowned as he folded his arms across his chest, an expression on his face that was borderline challenging.

"For taking on Loki alone," Tony replied with a sigh. He glanced back at Grace as he crossed towards Steve. "Even you have to admit that that was stupid."

"He was doing his job," she said quietly.

"Ugh, he was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…" Tony's voice trailed off. Even though his words sounded harsh, Grace wasn't mad at Tony. He was doing just what she did with her blank slate expression: putting up a defense to hide what he was really thinking and feeling. She couldn't blame him at all.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve said, crossing to meet Tony and Grace.

"Right, I've heard that before," Tony said sarcastically.

"Is the first time you lost a soldier?" Steve turned around to face Grace and Tony as the two of them passed him. Without warning, Tony whirled around to face the blonde man, nearly knocking Grace to the side.

"We are _not_ soldiers," he spat. Grace froze as she gathered her balance. Tony's dark brown eyes were fiery and angry, adamant in his statement. She'd never seen him look like this before, not even when they'd all been fighting in the lab right before the explosion had taken place. He'd never looked angrier than he did just now. He seemed to realize his outburst, and his face changed to almost looking self-conscious. He visibly backed down, swallowing hard as he did so.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," he said, offering up what seemed to be an explanation, an apology.

"Neither am I," Steve said sincerely. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we gotta put that behind us and get this done."

"We need to find Loki," Grace murmured quietly.

"Now, he needs a power source," Steve replied. Grace noticed Tony's eyes drift towards the bloodstain on the wall, and she put a hand on his arm, pulling him back out from his thoughts. His face softened at her touch, and his dark eyes were back on Steve as the young man spoke, his eyes bright with a new thought. "If we can put together a list—"

"He made it personal," he interrupted.

"That's not the point," Steve said patiently, as if he were dealing with a young child. Tony chose to ignore Steve's tone.

"That _is_ the point," Grace protested, suddenly catching onto what Tony was saying. "That's _Loki's _point. That's what all of this was. He hit us right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve answered as if it were obvious.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? _That's _what he wants," Grace continued. Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at her.

"He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it," he said. Grace pointed back at him.

"He wants an audience," she finished.

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart," Steve quipped. Tony crossed behind Steve and up the stairs as his mind continued turning, spinning out thoughts faster than he could create them.

"Yeah, that was just previews. This is…this is opening night," he said.

"And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right?" Grace tacked on.

"Yes! Yes, he is, Agent! He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered—" Tony stopped short, his eyes widening as he made a connection. His eyes met Grace's, and hers widened, too, as they shared the same thought. "Son of a bitch."

He brushed past Steve, walking at full speed.

"The Tower?" Steve called out. Grace turned over her shoulder, following Tony, and she beckoned to Steve to follow.

"Yeah, the Tower," she replied. "We need to get one of the aircrafts ready for departure. We're flying to New York, guys."

"You bet your ass we are," Tony replied smartly. "I can't fucking believe it."

"That's what happens when you build something that tall and put your name on it for the whole damn world to see," Steve remarked, but his tone was pleasant. Tony shot him a look.

"Ok, Captain Glacier, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that because my parents taught me to respect my elders," he replied calmly. Steve opened his mouth to retort, but Grace flashed him a glare that made him think twice.

"Go get Natasha and Clint. I'll meet you back here in 15 minutes," she said.

"What about you, Stark?" Steve asked. Grace rolled her eyes and gave the young army captain a look.

"Suit, duh," Tony replied.

"Oh. Right." Steve nodded sharply and turned down a hall, walking at full speed.

"That motherfucker, using my Tower," Tony muttered.

"I'm glad that the Tower was only 12% my idea, or else I'd take the fall for having encouraged you to become the only name in clean energy," Grace said with a smug expression on her face. He glanced at her as they walked.

"Hmmm, actually, you know, now that I think about it, it was _entirely _your idea to do that," he said. She smirked.

"Yeah, _now_ you give me credit."

"Hey, go suit up. I have some things I need to do to finish up my suit. I got a little banged up during the fight," Tony said. She frowned.

"Banged up?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that. I got a little trapped in the engine's blades when I was out repairing it," he said casually with a shrug.

"Don't think to tell me or anything," she replied with a small smirk. He quickly kissed her on the top of the head and winked at her.

"I'll meet you soon, ok?" And then he'd ducked into the lab to finish his repairs.

Grace continued down the hall to her room where she put on the rest of her uniform, making it combat ready. Her gun was in its holster at her hip, and she added the few extra rockets and other pretty little weapons that Tony had given her to help her in battle. Well, she was definitely going to need them for this one.

* * *

Grace met with Natasha and Clint in the hall outside the lab, and they began walking towards the jet. She and Natasha were in matching uniforms, and Clint was in his own uniform. Steve led the way, fully decked out in his red, white, and blue.

"Hey, thanks for yesterday," Grace said quietly as they walked along. Natasha gave her a questioning glance. "You know, saving my ass from the Hulk."

"Don't worry about it. It was a bad situation," the redhead replied. Grace scoffed.

"Understatement of the year. You should've kept running."

"I had to fix things," Natasha said plainly, startling Grace. Natasha's green eyes met Grace's amber ones, and she understood what Natasha was trying to say. Everything was ok with them again, and she could breathe easier. Natasha smiled at Grace, and she found herself smiling back.

They approached the jet. A pilot was already sitting in it, and he didn't look happy to see the four of them marching up to him with clear intentions on taking it.

"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be here," the pilot said.

"Son, just don't," Steve ordered, sounding mildly bored as he took control of the situation. The pilot didn't hesitate in leaving. Natasha and Grace made eye contact and suppressed their smirks. Clint took his position in the pilot's seat, switching on all kinds of controls and reading different panels that made no sense to Grace. She had experience flying jets—hell, she'd done it just yesterday with Natasha. She just didn't know what the fuck this jet was, and she'd leave it to Clint to pilot the thing.

"Alright, she's warmed up!" Clint called back to them as the doors to the jet shut behind them. "Stark, can you hear me?"

"Yep, loud and clear. Everyone present?"

"Yes, Captain, Black Widow, and Scorpion are all present."

"Perfect. Shall we fly, then?"

"Ready for take off, ladies and gentlemen?" Clint shouted over his shoulder.

"We're ready!" Steve shouted back. It was a matter of seconds, and they were soaring down the runway, open sky in front of them.

"Let's fly," Clint said into the speaker. They were airborne. A flash of red beside them quickly passed them, telling them that Tony was ready and on the go. Grace watched as he flew away ahead of them to New York. He hadn't needed to tell her that he was mourning, too. If she'd questioned it before, she had her confirmation as she watched him go ahead of them to take on Loki.

She smiled to herself as she realized that yeah, this motherfucker had _no _idea what was coming for him.


	12. Battlefield

**Much love and shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, lcb117, akt15, Uruvia, d-aisy-vibe, MsRose91, and byakuya7309 for reviewing! I love reading what y'all have to say!**

**Ok, guys, we're getting into the fight, and we're coming down to the home stretch. I'm thinking maybe only three or four chapters left, and then it'll be on to the "between" story. I apologize in advance that there won't be too much Grace and Tony interaction in the fight scenes since they're off doing two separately different things. I'm planning on writing a chapter about what Grace and Tony do right after where the movie cuts off so there'll be plenty of fluff coming up in the future -coughandsomeSMUTsinceIpromiseditcough- ;) I'm so excited to write the "between" story and then move onto Iron Man 3 because I have all these ideas swimming around in my head!**

**Also, quick apology in advance that Tony's viewpoints of the fight scenes won't be included so much in the action chapters unless Grace is involved. I'm purposely choosing not to write his fight scenes because they won't be any different than they would be in the movie, and I don't think y'all really want to sit and read a flowery narration of basically just what he does in the movie if there's nothing different. The fight scenes will be focused on Grace since, well, she's not a movie character, so that'll at least be a new spin to a familiar view =)**

**Sorry for the long A/N again! God, I always have so much to say, and I can't seem to shut up. Well, the action is starting to pick up, Grace is in survival mode, and let's see what happens! Please review and leave your comments, thoughts, and opinions! ^_^ So much love to all of you!**

* * *

Chapter 11

Grace leaned back against the wall of the jet and surveyed her surroundings, ignoring her pounding heart. The jet was grey and dark, just like all SHIELD jets, and it really wasn't anything special at all; she just needed to stop thinking about what was up ahead. Tony was going to confront Loki by himself, she knew that much, even if Tony hadn't said it. He wasn't going to sit by and read a magazine while he waited for the rest of them to arrive, no way. That wasn't Tony Stark's style at all. She had her earpiece in, the volume turned up to max. She didn't know what to expect on the battlefield. At the thought, she inwardly smirked. Never before had she thought of a mission as having a battlefield. _Well_, she thought as she glanced over at Steve, _things change_.

Grace was nervous. She'd never been nervous for a mission before in her life, but she was nervous now because she understood the potential of this mission for her. If they didn't stop Loki before the Chitauri came, she would have to fight an army of aliens, and she knew that her survival instinct would be kicked in to the max. In layman's terms, she faced the possibility of losing touch with her rational side, and her survival instincts would take over completely. The danger of that happening was more than a simple concern for her. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes to relax her muscles.

"Agent Marks?" Tony said pleasantly into the earpiece. Her ears perked up at the sound of his warm voice.

"Yes, Mr. Stark?" she asked.

"This conversation is currently a private stream between the two of us," he replied easily.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really, Agent. I figured that the others wouldn't be able to handle hearing me as Tony Stark: A Real Man."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I'm nearing the Tower, and I wanted to inform you that you're going to be fine throughout this."

She smiled at his words. Even though he wasn't there with her, he somehow knew exactly what she needed to hear. A powerful feeling surged through her solar plexus, and she wished that he were there in person so she could wrap her arms around him and hold him close to her.

"Thank you, Tony," she said softly.

"I mean it. You'll be fine. We'll kick alien ass, and then we can go home tonight, get in bed, pass out for 72 hours, and then sue SHIELD for having us do this."

"You can't sue SHIELD." A smirk pulled at her lips.

"Like hell you can't. I'll make it happen, Princess."

"I'd like to keep my job, thanks."

"Huh. Next year then. Hey, I'm almost at the Tower. I'll see you soon. I love you, ok?" he said, ending it with the phrase that they'd started saying two years ago when he'd gone to fight off the Hammeroid attacks at the Expo. Just like it always did, Grace's heart warmed to hear him say their phrase.

"I love you, ok. Come back to me. Do you hear me, Tony? Come back to me." She hadn't planned on the emotion coming through her voice so thickly, and she was surprised to feel that familiar stinging in the back of her eyelids. Quickly, she blinked until the feeling went away.

"I always do," Tony said. "I'm putting the feed back on public, so if you want to say anything sexy, do it now."

"Go get Loki, and then I'll see what I can come up with," she replied with a smirk. And then the line was put back on so that everyone could hear each other speaking through the earpieces, and he went to go kick God of Mischief ass. She closed her eyes and sent up a prayer to a god that she didn't believe in that she and Tony would come out of this alive.

* * *

To say that Tony was irritated was the understatement of the century. His suit was pretty beat up, so it was malfunctioning slightly. The Cube was surrounded by a force field of pure energy, and he hadn't been able to break through the force field, so that definitely put a damper on things. As he hovered in the air, contemplating what to do next, he spotted Loki.

"Plan B," he said, thinking on his feet. Besides, he had a bone to pick with Loki. From his position in the sky, it'd be very simple to just blast the asshole and be done with it, but something that Grace had told him resonated through his brain: Scorpion.

"Sir, the Mark 7 is not ready for deployment," Jarvis said, sounding slightly nervous.

"Then skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock," Tony replied, his voice mirroring his own irritation. He landed on the usual disc of roof that he landed on, keeping eye contact with the black-haired god. Tony's eyes were intense as the machines removed his suit. He wasn't afraid of the guy, and he was showing it by taking his suit off. Without his suit, he was completely vulnerable. As he stared hard at Loki, he couldn't help picturing Agent Coulson's face in his mind. His suit was off, and he stalked into his Tower, a sense of ownership and pride coming over him. Loki walked in to join him.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my sense of humanity," the god said with a cold smile on his face.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Tony remarked back, staring down at the man from his high point.

"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki gave him a smirk.

"Yeah," Tony droned as he crossed towards his bar. Damn, he could use a drink, especially since he was about to threaten an alien god without his suit on. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the, uh, glow stick of destiny." He pointed in the general direction of Loki's obnoxious scepter. _Seriously, fuck that thing_, he thought to himself. Loki looked down at it and then back up at Tony.

"Would you like a drink?" Tony asked casually, as if he were asking Rhodey if he wanted a drink, not a raving lunatic from outer space. Loki grinned, looking genuinely amused by Tony Stark.

"Stalling me won't change anything," he smoothly replied. His voice flowed out as warm and gentle as honey. Each word was a caress that sounded as if it would promise good things, when the truth was that the words themselves promised anything but.

"No, no, no. Threatening," Tony politely corrected. "No drink? You sure? _I'm _having one." Damn straight he was. Loki ignored him and walked towards the ceiling-to-floor windows that overlooked the city, providing a stunning view. Tony noticed ironically that the last time he was looking out those windows had been with Grace when they were having 12% of a moment.

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that." Loki was staring intently out the window. Mentally, Tony rolled his eyes. The guy was a damn drama queen like his brother. Must be an Asgard thing, he reasoned. "What have I to fear?" Loki turned around to confront Tony, genuinely expecting an answer.

"The Avengers," Tony casually replied, popping the top off of one of his bottles of alcohol and pouring it into a glass. He looked up and saw Loki giving him a confused look. As if having to explain a stupid reason, he rolled his eyes. "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type of thing." He continued to pour the amber liquid into the glass.

"Yes, I've met them," Loki replied with a smug grin. "All except your girlfriend, I believe, aside from the quick introduction in the jet when you first took hold of me."

Caution struck Tony deep in his chest, but he maintained a blank face that Grace would've been proud of, and he stared solidly at the god. He shrugged.

"Eh, what can I say? She's a bit anti-social. Not a people person. It's a little embarrassing at social functions." He was lying his ass off at this point. At social functions, Grace was anything but anti-social, but he had to keep the ball rolling. He had to deter Loki off of Grace. He knew that Loki wouldn't hesitate to use Grace to manipulate him.

"Yeah," Tony continued. "Anyway, it takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend." Tony discreetly put on the bracelets that he'd conveniently stored behind the bar last time he'd been there. He thanked his lucky stars that he'd put them there because they were sure as hell coming in handy just now. Always a perfect time to try new gadgets, he thought pleasantly. "A man with _breath-taking_ anger management issues, a few master assassins, and _you_, big fella," he paused, "you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan." Loki smirked as he paced back and forth. Pacing drove Tony crazy, and he was trying to ignore it, but what he really wanted to do was yell at the guy to stop. Jesus Christ, what was the point of walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth? It didn't make him look intimidating; it made him look like a fucking cat.

"Not a great plan." Tony took a swallow of his drink and began to cross towards Loki. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for _you_."

"I have an army," Loki said darkly.

"We have a Hulk," Tony countered, not breaking eye contact.

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off," Loki innocently replied.

"Yeah, you're missing the point." Tony was irritated now. "There is no throne. There is _no_ version of this where you come out on top. _Maybe _your army comes, and _maybe _it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." His dark eyes were the color of coal, boring into Loki, and he sipped on his drink. Loki approached him slowly, cat-like.

"How will your friends have time for me when they are so busy fighting _you_? How will your lovely Agent Marks kill me when she's about to plunge the knife into _you_?" He lifted his scepter, and for the first time since he'd begun threatening the black-haired man, Tony felt a little afraid. The tip of the scepter was aimed at his chest, and Tony's first thought was that Loki was going to destroy the arc reactor. Pain rose up, and he was about knee Loki in the groin when the tip just clattered against the metal edge of the arc reactor, the sound making Tony jump slightly. Loki frowned in confusion and paused, staring at the scepter on the billionaire's chest. He drew it back and tried it again. Nothing happened. He frowned deeper.

"This usually works," he said, clearly puzzled.

"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five—" Tony was cut off by Loki's hand around his throat. Within seconds, he found himself flying through the air and slamming onto the concrete ground of the Tower. Huh, maybe concrete hadn't been the best idea after all. The wind was knocked out of his lungs, and he fought to draw breath.

"Jarvis, anytime now," he grunted, rising again to his feet. Loki's hand was around his throat again, and his muscles tensed in anticipation.

"You will _all _fall before me," the God of Mischief hissed, his voice rough in Tony's ear.

"Deploy!" Tony called out. He saw the case for his suit starting to open. His heart jumped at the sight of his suit, only a few more seconds…come on, Loki, don't do anything rash for the next few seconds, he pleaded. However, Loki wasn't tuning into Tony's thoughts because he lifted the billionaire off his feet and threw him out the window. As Tony hurtled through the air, the one thought on his mind was to get in a position for the suit to catch him. He spread his body out into an X, his wrists visible so that Jarvis could target them. Relief flooded his system when he felt the suit close around him, encasing him safely inside.

His face plate slid down, and just seconds before he hit the ground, he fired his thrusters and went flying back up to the top of the Tower that he'd just been thrown out of. As he leveled out with Loki, he glared at the man.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil."

With that having been said, he raised his hand and blasted his repulsor. Loki went flying backwards, letting out a loud cry as he fell. Yep, Tony was pleased with himself.

It was then that the Cube chose that moment in time to open the portal. A stream of blue energy flew up into the sky. Tony watched in shock and amazement as the sky began to open, revealing outer space. From the blackness, things began to fly out of the portal.

"Right," he murmured, as he remembered the Chitauri. His control screen on the inside of his helmet switched to battle mode. "Army." Without a second thought, he flew to blast them the fuck out of the sky.

Nothing would've been able to prepare Grace for the scene that she laid her eyes on as Clint navigated the jet into New York. Her amber eyes were the size of saucers as she took in the sight of chaos. Alien warriors were flying down everywhere, blasting buildings, people, cars. From a distance, she could see all of this happening with her enhanced eyes.

"No fucking way," she breathed. "Tony, we're on your 3, headed northeast."

"What did you stop for drive-through?" Tony retorted into her earpiece. She couldn't even manage to roll her eyes, she was so shocked by what she saw. In all of her years as a SHIELD agent she'd never seen anything like it. The look on Natasha's face told her that she was thinking the exact same thing. Natasha looked over her shoulder from the navigator's seat back to Grace. The two exchanged a look and a nod, and that was all they needed to do. They had each other's backs. They were in this.

"Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay them out for you," Tony said. Clint navigated the jet smoothly and professionally through the air of the cramped streets. Grace caught a glimpse of a speeding red flash—that was Tony—followed by the alien warriors. Clint released a hail of gunfire on the fuckers, killing some and missing some.

"Well, that's a start!" she said cheerfully. She could feel her nerves beginning to heat up; she wasn't fully in survival mode yet, but she was on edge, prepared at any moment to give into her heightened sense of self-preservation. She rushed to the front of the jet to look out over Clint and Natasha. They were rounding the side of the Stark Tower, and that was when she caught sight of Thor and Loki.

"Nat?" Clint asked, offering it up to the redheaded assassin.

"I see him," she replied. They turned the jet and began firing at Loki, trying their damnedest not to hit Thor. Loki turned to face them, a flash of irritation crossing his face before lifting up his scepter and firing at them. The blast hit the wing, and the jet began to go down. Grace's nerves went white-hot; she was going into survival mode. She closed her eyes as the rush overtook her body, and when she opened them, her irises were black.

"Fuck, we're going down!" Clint shouted.

"Hold on, Captain!" Natasha cried. Clint did his best to steer the aircraft down without hitting anything vital. He did clip a few buildings, but for a man who'd just been de-hypnotized who was flying a crashing jet, he did a pretty good job. The jet slammed into the ground, the sound of metal scraping concrete ripping through Grace's ears in an unpleasant way. She was jostled around as the jet slowed to a stop, but she wasn't thrown about the cabin. Clint pressed the button that lowered the doors in the back, and she glanced at Steve.

"Ladies first," he said, standing back and offering her the choice to go in front of him. She nodded shortly and marched out of the aircraft and into the chaos that awaited them. Taking in her surroundings and watching the Chitauri fly by on their tiny little ships while she ran, she knew that they were in for some big shit.

"We gotta get back up there!" Steve shouted. They ran for a block, surveying the destruction of overturned cars, injured people, and destroyed buildings as they tried to find their way to everyone else. A loud mechanical noise rattled through the air, slowing the four teammates down, and they were drawn to a halt as they stared up at the portal.

Grace couldn't believe her eyes. She'd seen a lot of unbelievable things in her lifetime, most of them having been in the last 5 minutes, but what she was gazing at took the prize for most unbelievable. Her heart stopped beating, and she held her breath as what she assumed was a giant worm the size of the _Titanic _sailed through the portal. The worm was protected by a metal armor, she could see that from her distance, and she knew that it meant the worm would be a bitch to kill. It released a roar that physically pained her ears to listen to it, but she didn't flinch, nor did she cover her ears. Her face and body remained as expressionless as always whenever she was in battle.

The worm flew over them, and as it soared by, she saw that Chitauri warriors were clinging onto the sides of it. Whenever they got near something close enough, they would release a rope and go flying off, clinging onto the sides of buildings, landing on the ground, cars, any available surface.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked out loud into his earpiece.

"Seeing. Still…working on believing," Tony replied haltingly. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve repeated in surprise.

"Just keep me posted," Tony said. "Jarvis, find me a soft spot."

"The three of you stay here. Take cover. I'm going to take a quick look to see how far back we need to set a perimeter. If you see one of the Chitauri, shoot him," Steve said, redirecting his attention back to the three SHIELD assassins. Grace stiffly nodded and ducked behind a yellow taxicab with Natasha and Clint. She knelt down low to the ground next to her two colleagues. Her senses were on overload. Sounds, sights, smells, and vibrations were coming in from all over the place and feeding into her brain.

"This is way more than we bargained for! There are civilians all over the place out here!" Clint shouted over the noise of the guns and the Chitauri roars.

"Yeah, I think it's a little late to back out now!" Natasha replied.

"You sure about that? Turning and running sounds like a good idea to me!" Grace called out.

"She speaks!" Clint teased with a grin. Whenever Grace was in survival mode, she barely spoke because she was too focused on everything happening around her. She forced the muscles of her mouth to form a small smile back at her fellow teammate. Within seconds, Steve came racing back to them.

"We've got civilians still trapped up here," Clint said as he crouched down behind the taxi with them. His blue eyes were icy hot behind his traditional mask. He popped up and looked out over the scene, watching Loki come speeding towards their direction on his flying jet-ski, blowing up anything and everything around him.

"Loki," he breathed as he settled back down with them. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

And with that, Grace was on her feet. She lifted up, a gun in each hand, Natasha mirroring her, and she began firing. The Chitauri were coming in, and they were coming in fast. Grace didn't think as she fired; she just looked, aimed, and pulled the trigger. Natasha was doing the same thing. So there they were, two assassins looking cool and calm as they began shooting down the seemingly infinite numbers of Chitauri. They were going to need a lot more ammunition.


	13. The Avengers

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, Cretha Loesing, MicroSpider, BelleBomb, akt15, and MsRose91! Thank y'all so much for continuing to leave feedback!**

**Here's an action-packed (but kind of short) chapter full of Grace doing badass shit. I want her to do something cool action-wise in the next chapter, but I'm not entirely sure how I want her to be involved in the action, so if I don't update for a day or so, I'm thinking of ideas. (Just as a warning in case I can't think of anything by tomorrow, so y'all aren't expecting an update!) Natasha does some badass shit with controlling the flying jet-skis (I'm sorry I keep calling them that. I just don't know how else to describe them), and I want Grace to do something badass on the ground. She has to stay on the ground for what I'm planning in either the next chapter or the chapter after that. Ugh, I'm so uncreative. This is frustrating =(**

**I hope y'all don't find these action chapters too boring. I don't really like writing them because it's a lot of describing what's physically happening. I so much more prefer writing dialogue and emotional/sensory descriptions so this action stuff can get tiring. Yeah, sometimes I think I'm in it, so I feel like I've been fighting and get tired, too hahaha!**

**Anyway, sorry to load off my writer's frustrations on you guys in this yet again super long A/N. But for real, guys, we're getting down to the home stretch. Probably only two more chapters, and then we're on to the "between" story!**

**Oh, just for fun and because I'm really curious, what celebrity do you most picture Grace looking like? (Eyes aside because we know that there's no celebrity who can have those signature Agent Grace Marks eyes) Please review and give me your thoughts! I absolutely love reading them!**

* * *

Chapter 13

Grace ducked back down behind the taxi to face Steve.

"We got this. It's good. Go," she said, nodding at him.

"Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked. He was completely in control, and it was written all over his face. Gone was the confused young blonde who had the tendency to be timid and a little shy. In his place was a man who took command in battle. Grace watched his blue eyes take in their enemies as they attacked.

"Captain," Clint said, and he pressed a button on his quiver, activating a certain setting. He looked pleased and ready to take on the challenge. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

He began firing arrows, and Steve was gone. Grace quickly stood up and began shooting. The loud shots from behind her told her that Natasha was shooting, too, as Clint got civilians who were trapped in a bus free.

As soon as the civilians were safe, Clint came back and settled in between Grace and Natasha.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha shouted over the guns and the weapons.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," he mildly replied, shooting off more arrows.

The Chitauri were dropping like flies, but as soon as one fell, ten more seemed to appear. Grace was in the rhythm of the battle; she could point her gun behind her shoulder and hit one of the aliens without even looking at, that's how finely tuned in her senses were to her surroundings. Her blood rushed hot and quick through her veins as she fired off one shot after another.

Her gun clicked, signaling that she was out of ammo. She quickly reached into one of the hidden compartments on her uniform where she kept her ammo, but a charging Chitauri warrior caught her eye. The thing was running right towards her, and she didn't have enough time to reload her gun or dodge out of the way. Steadying herself, she calculated whatever time and distance remained, and when he got close, he lifted his weapon to bring down on top of her. With lightning speed, she grabbed his arm, hoisted herself onto his back. She swung her legs around his neck and twisted so that she'd flipped him over her and slammed him down onto the ground. Before the alien could move, she'd grabbed his fallen weapon and stabbed him through the heart with it. She turned around and blasted the alien that had been trying a sneak attack on her, killing him instantly.

Her nerves lit up, and she saw that she was being circled in on. She had one Chitauri weapon in her hand, and she was surrounded by 15 of them. Quickly, she looked over at Natasha who was eagerly and calmly firing her gun, killing the Chitauri that advanced on her and Clint.

"Nat!" she cried. Natasha turned at the sound of her voice, and the assassin's green eyes widened when she saw Grace in the middle of the enclosing Chitauri. With all her strength, Grace tossed the weapon to Natasha. Natasha reached out, and her hand enclosed around it, completing the catch. She watched Grace rip off the dead alien's armor, crouch down low to the ground, and hold it over her head. Her blackened eyes met Natasha's, and Natasha suddenly knew what Grace was planning. In an instant, Natasha dashed up on top of a nearby car and angled the weapon downwards towards the middle of the armor that Grace was holding. She fired, the blast hitting the armor and ricocheting off in all directions, hitting the surrounding Chitauri and killing them. Grace lowered the piece of armor and stood back up, surveying the fallen. She glanced up at Natasha and nodded. The green-eyed agent grinned as she watched Grace dash back to her hidden nook and change out the ammunition in her gun. Grace always found a way out of everything.

A whole line of the aliens appeared, and she cocked her head as an idea came to her. She didn't stop to think; she never did whenever she was in survival mode. With her gun still in her hand, she began to charge at them. She was running at full speed before they caught sight of her, but by then it was too late. She ducked down and slid on the ground. Her feet slammed into their ankles and knocked them down, a line of dominoes falling as she slid too quickly to be stopped underneath them. Once she'd reached the end, she stood up and shot the one closest to her. She took hold of his weapon and blasted the rest of them.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Steve had come back and was joining them. She did a quick second appraisal, arriving at the conclusion that he seemed to be unharmed. Her ears started crackling, and she looked up at the sky. Lightning would be coming soon; she could always tell when lightning was about to strike. Sure enough, a bolt of electricity shot through the sky, and Thor was next to them. As much as she couldn't stand the guy, she sure was glad to see him there fighting with them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked, approaching the blonde god.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable," Thor gravely answered, his dark eyes flashing regretfully.

"Thor's right. We gotta deal with _these _guys." Tony came in over her earpiece, and he zoomed past them, followed by more Chitauri on their damn flying jet-skis.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked. She sounded nervous, apprehensive of what was about to happen. Aside from the incident in the helicarrier with the Hulk, this was the first time that she didn't know what to do. Grace couldn't blame her; this was definitely the most difficult mission that she'd ever been assigned to, and she had no idea how the fuck they were going to get out of this.

"As a team," Steve answered firmly.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor spoke up, as if that made a fucking difference to anyone.

"Yeah? Well, get in line," Hawkeye answered, his face dark as he handled one of his arrows.

"He has a debt to pay," Grace said. She didn't need to elaborate on what she meant.

"Save it," Steve sharply snapped. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild." He turned around and faced them, again taking control of the chaos around them. "We got Stark up top—"

"Banner," Grace interrupted.

"What?" Steve asked, a look of irritation at having been interrupted crossing his face. Grace gestured with her head off to the left.

"Banner," she repeated.

The sound of a motorcycle filled everyone else's ears, and they stepped back to see Bruce Banner riding up on one to join the fight. Steve glanced at Grace with a deeper appreciation for the assassin. He'd always known that her senses were outrageously on point, and he knew that she could hear and see all kinds of things that regular people missed, but he was continually impressed whenever he saw her call things out before they happened.

"How'd you know it was Banner?" he asked. She gazed back at him with her black eyes. If he'd ever found her amber eyes strange, he thought her black eyes were even stranger. She didn't look quite herself without her signature amber eyes, and her survival mode made her look even more robotic and less human.

"Feel it," she replied shortly and didn't offer any other explanations. Steve figured that that was the best he was going to get, and he accepted it. They all walked towards the dark-haired scientist as he dismounted his motorcycle and strolled slowly towards them.

"So, this all seems…horrible," he said, his voice carrying its usual cheerfully ironic tone.

"I've seen worse," Natasha said, giving him a pointed glare.

"Felt worse," Grace mumbled. His dark eyes bounced back and forth between the two assassins, and he realized what they were saying.

"Sorry," he genuinely replied.

"No, we could use…a little worse," Natasha said with a gleam of amusement bright in her green eyes.

"Bullshit, we could use a lot worse," Grace piped up cheerfully.

"Stark, we got him," Steve announced.

"Banner?" Tony questioned.

"Just like you said," Steve conceded.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

As soon as Tony had finished his statement, he came careening around a corner. The giant ass worm was behind it, making Tony look like the size of an ant. Grace surveyed the size of the worm and twisted her mouth to the side.

"I…I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said with a frown on her beautiful face.

"It's like college all over again," Grace quipped and steadied herself for the worm's arrival. Tony shot past them at the speed of a bullet, not slowing down for a second. The worm was hot on his tail as the distance between the teammates and the creature began to decrease.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said, "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

Banner had begun walking towards the worm, looking every ounce as cool and calm as Natasha and Grace did, and he turned over his shoulder to look back at Steve.

"That's my secret, Captain," he remarked easily. He stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm always angry." Turning around to confront the worm in perfect timing, the mild-mannered scientist's shirt split open as his muscles exploded through, the skin morphing into a green as bright as Natasha's eyes. His fist slammed into the worm, and the worm began to crush in on itself. Grace watched in awe as the Hulk took care of the thing as if it weren't as big and unstoppable as it really was.

"Hold on!" Tony shouted, flying back and holding out his fist, releasing a missile that embedded itself into the worm and exploded. Steve reached out and grabbed Grace. In a flash, she was tucked underneath his shield with Natasha, safe from the explosion.

As the worm detonated, the Chitauri began to scream. Grace stood up from beneath Steve's shield, and they all backed up into a circle, gazing outwards at their enemies. Tony was even with them. He stood right next to Grace; she could feel him. That was all she needed at that moment. She didn't need to touch him or look at him to know that he was there with her, to know that they were going to fight like hell to get through this. She just needed to know he was there, and he was.

Her black eyes scanned over the Chitauri, and her blood became more heated. Her gun was in her hand, and she took the safety off. She was ready, and she was letting the alien warriors know.

"Guys," she said slowly as she realized what her body was telling her. "They're sending more."

"What?" Steve snapped.

"They're not done yet," she said, and she pointed at the sky towards the wormhole. True to her word, more worms and more Chitauri came through.

"I hate when she's right," Tony deadpanned. "Call it, Captain."

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on _that_ roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or you turn it to ash," Steve ordered, his voice stern.

"Can you give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked Tony with a grin.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas," Tony replied.

"He's not kidding," Grace added, secretly enjoying the look on Clint's face at her words. Tony grabbed Clint, and they were off, soaring high up into the tops of the buildings. Steve continued barking out his orders.

"Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up." Thor took off, and Steve redirected his attention back to Natasha and Grace. "The three of us, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk…" He turned and looked up at the giant green monster. He lifted a finger and pointed up at the Chitauri. "Smash."

Hulk took that quite literally because as soon as Steve was done giving him his orders, he'd taken off and was smashing the Chitauri left and right. Steve turned back to the assassins and stared hard at them.

"Well, ladies, let's get to work," he said.

* * *

As Grace lay on her back, beneath the point of a Chitauri weapon, she wondered how on Earth she'd ended up like this. She was getting tired, and she was slipping. Her instincts were still as finely tuned as ever; it was her body that was starting to tire. Her hands shook as the alien tried driving the point into her neck, and she fought back. Before the thing could blink, she jerked it to the side so it stabbed the ground by her face, pushed herself between his legs, and grabbed a metal armor plate off of his leg. Bringing herself to her feet, she leapt onto his back and drove the jagged piece of metal straight through. The creature roared and dropped to its knees.

Grace fell with it, and she smashed the side of her face into the back of its armor. She let out a loud swear words as she felt the cut she'd obtained from her Hulk attack reopen. Warm blood poured down her cheek, and she consciously forced herself not to touch it. She glanced over and saw Steve talking to Natasha. Tentatively, she walked over. Natasha looked just as worn as Grace imagined she herself looked. The agent's green eyes flicked over to Grace, and her forehead wrinkled in concern when she saw all the blood.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Looks worse than the story is," Grace replied. Receiving confirmation that Grace was ok, Natasha looked back at Steve.

"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal," she said wearily.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," he murmured as he gazed up at it.

"They'll keep coming in. There's got to be a way," Grace added.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha said. Steve took a hard look at her as he realized what she was suggesting.

"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride," he said. She sighed, determination hardening her face, as an idea came to her mind.

"I got a ride," she said, throwing down the weapon she'd been holding. She walked to the opposite side of the bridge and looked at Steve. "I could use a boost, though."

"Are you sure about this?" Steve knew what she was saying, and he prepared himself to lift her into the sky. Her green eyes met his blue ones, and she looked uneasy.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun!" she said nonconvincingly.

"Again, it's like college all over," Grace mumbled.

Natasha took a running jump, leapt on top of the car, landed on Steve's shield, and was boosted up. She grabbed onto a flying jet-ski and flew away. Grace and Steve were left to themselves, and they looked at each other.

"Are they still coming in?" he asked. She nodded.

"There's a whole bunch still waiting up there," she said and gestured towards the wormhole with her head. "They're just streaming through. It's endless, Steve."

"I guess it's you and me here on foot then. Let's go." Steve took off at a run, and Grace followed. She usually wasn't a follower; in fact, Agent Grace Marks was _never _a follower, but at this point in time, she had no better option than to follow where Captain Steve Rogers led her. So where he ran, she would run, too.


	14. Instincts

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, BelleBomb, MicroSpider, MsRose91, and akt15 for the reviews!**

**Here it is, guys. The chapter you've all been waiting for. I think you know what I mean ;)**

**Probably only one or two more chapters left, and then on to the next journey with Tony and Grace! As you know, once I post the last chapter, I will post the new chapter for the new story in the same night. I don't like keeping y'all waiting =) Thank you all so much for the support I've been given. I love writing Tony and Grace together, and I love adding her into the movies, so it's super nice to read that you guys like her and their relationship as much as I do!**

**Anyway, let me know what you guys think of this chapter! This was a really hard one to write =) Ah, the emotions!**

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Chapter 14

Alien after alien came, and Grace shot bullet after bullet, stabbed over and over again until each fucker that thought he could mess with her was dead. She was doing very well on not having completely reverted into survival mode, and she was proud of herself. An alien's head exploded as its bullet made contact and burst out through the other side. Grace flipped in a somersault over the edge of the car that she was taking cover behind, landing on the top of the smashed vehicle on one knee. Bullets found homes inside the brains of all the surrounding aliens.

"Hey, Princess," Tony said cheerfully, landing next to her. She didn't pause to greet him back as she disarmed an alien near her. Tony's repulsors were everywhere, firing off into the approaching crowd of Chitauri. She saw him bounce a blast off of Steve's shield, and deep down, she loved seeing him work with Steve. Even Tony Stark was capable of teamwork, she thought to herself.

With a blast from his thrusters, he'd shot up into the air, leaving her behind again. She didn't watch him as he left her; she was used to it.

Barton called in a specific mission for Steve; the young man was off in a heartbeat, and she was left by herself to fight. As she surveyed the Chitauri closing in on her, she figured that she'd probably been in worse situations. She racked her brain. _Surely_, she'd been in worse situations. Hmmm. Perhaps she hadn't been in worse situations.

One of them charged at her, his weapon out in front. She grabbed it and thrust her knee up into the warrior's chest as hard as she could. Reaching around the back of his neck, she stabbed him with his own weapon. She sensed one of the aliens behind her, and she turned around, swinging hard. The weapon collided with his head, and he was out cold.

She turned around and saw a group of the aliens coming towards her. Quickly, she dug into another one of her hidden compartments and pulled out a grenade. She pulled the pin and launched it through the air, ducking as it exploded on the ground and killed the surrounding assholes. She glanced towards them and felt a grandiose sense of self-satisfaction.

One by one, she fought alien after alien. One by one, each alien fell at her feet, dead. She wasn't giving up just yet. Fuck no. There was a reason that she had been chosen to be a part of the Avengers: she didn't throw the towel in until each target was destroyed. She had plenty of targets to go.

Every now and then she caught the sight of Tony zipping through the air, blasting his repulsors and killing the creatures. She hadn't had any real contact with him since their quick conversation when she'd been on the jet, and he'd been about to deal with the Tesseract and Loki. She wasn't too worried about him, however. He was Tony Stark. He could handle himself just as well as she could handle herself, and she knew that. Yet, despite herself, she felt the slightest bit worried because she was human and because she loved him. She peered to her left, and she saw Tony shooting one of the giant worms with lasers. She could hear Jarvis telling Tony that he wouldn't be able to get through the shell on that thing; even from where she stood, she could tell that the shell was made out of a material that couldn't be found on Earth.

Suddenly, she saw Tony fly straight into the worm's mouth, and she stopped what she was doing to stare. What the _fuck _was he doing? Explosions in the worm showed that he was destroying the thing as he went through, and he came blasting out the other end, free falling. He hit a bus stop and came rolling to a stop near her. She sensed alien movement, and she knew what the alien was going to do. Her heart stopped. Tony was on the ground trying to stand, and his guard was down.

Her first instinct was to run. However, for the first time in her life, her instinct was to run _towards_ the action. Without thinking twice, she ran faster than she ever had, and she placed herself in front of Tony as he struggled to his feet. The blast from the Chitauri's weapon came, and she braced herself, placing her back to the aliens. A sharp sting across her back made her fall against Tony.

"Grace!" he cried into her earpiece. Fear struck him and nearly paralyzed him as he caught the assassin in his arms. For a moment, she didn't move, and his heart stopped. What had she been thinking? She wasn't supposed to do that; she wasn't supposed to jump in the line of fire for someone else; that just wasn't how she was programmed, and God, she was so stupid, and she wasn't moving, and he couldn't breathe because she wasn't moving, but then she grabbed hold of the arms of his suit and pulled herself up. Oxygen rushed back into his lungs as she appeared to be ok. Her eyes were black as she looked into where she knew his eyes would be. The Chitauri were advancing, she could feel it behind her. Ignoring the searing pain across her back, she reached to the left and pulled the car door off from the car itself. Tony had to admit that he was impressed. Desperate situations apparently meant that his girlfriend had super strength.

Grace held the car door in front of the two of them, backing up as the Chitauri advanced. Shots from their weapons rattled off the door, but she held it firmly. Her back was to Tony, and for the first time he saw how the weapon had affected her. Her uniform was ripped open, but her skin was unmarred. It was pink from the burn of the blast, but otherwise she was ok. He was speechless as he stared at it, deaf to the sounds of what was happening around him. Grace reached into her holster and pulled her gun out, firing through the window of the car at the Chitauri in front of her.

"Grace, what are you thinking!" he shouted over the sound of the gun.

"There are Chitauri coming up behind us! Get them!" she shouted, ignoring him. He almost couldn't process what she was saying because he was staring in shock over where she was supposed to be wounded, but then he pulled himself together. She would be ok. She always was. God, he hoped she hadn't been able to feel it. He turned around and began shooting his repulsors at the brand new Chitauri that had appeared from behind them.

"Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city." Fury's voice filled both Grace and Tony's earpieces. Aliens fell as Grace's bullets hit their skulls.

"How long?" Tony asked sharply.

"Three minutes, max," Fury replied. "The payload will wipe out midtown."

"Jarvis, put everything we got into the thrusters."

"I just did," Jarvis answered.

"Grace, you'll be ok?" Tony asked, turning to check in with the amber-eyed agent. She was busy shooting, and she nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"Go," she ordered. Tony took off, blasting upwards towards the sky. Using all of her strength, she threw the car door a la Steve Rogers towards the remaining Chitauri, and they fell as the door crushed their heads in. She sensed an alien come up behind her, and she turned sharply. She ducked the swing of the warrior's fist, missing her footing and falling onto the ground, smacking her head. She winced sharply as the ground burned against the wounded skin of her back. She didn't notice

"Marks, I need you up top with the Cube!" Natasha's voice shouted into Grace's earpiece. Grace winced at the loudness of it reverberating around in her brain, pressing her hand to her ear.

"I'll see you in a second," she said. She looked upwards, and she saw where the Cube was positioned. Frowning, she looked about her for a quick way up there. She pressed her hand back to her ear.

"Thor, I need a lift," she called.

"Yes, my lady," the god replied. Well, he was good for something, she decided. A stray Chitauri spotted her, and she rolled her eyes, taking aim and shooting it before it could get any closer. It fell instantly. She sensed an alien come up behind her, and she turned sharply. She ducked the swing of the warrior's fist, missing her footing and falling onto the ground, smacking her head. She winced sharply as the ground burned against the wounded skin of her back. She didn't notice that her earpiece had been knocked out and remained on the ground behind her. As she stood up, Thor was beside her.

"How can I help?" he asked sincerely. She gestured up towards the Cube.

"I need to get up there," she said.

"Of course." He wrapped an arm around her waist, and she closed her eyes, dreading what came next. He whirled his hammer around, building up momentum, and then he shot upwards at the speed of lightning. She fought the violent urge to throw up within the few seconds that they were in the air. When she opened her eyes, she was on the top of the roof, and Thor was gone. She wobbled and struggled to stand on her feet. Blinking hard, her vision straightened out, and she was able to take a few steps. Natasha's hair was bright in the sun, and there was a man with her that Grace assumed was Dr. Selvig.

"Grace, I can close the portal with Loki's scepter. It's a safety. I need you on the lookout for if any of those fuckers tries to get near me. Take them down if they approach," Natasha said seriously. Grace nodded and took her stance, her eyes, ears, and skin tingling with anticipation. The Chitauri hadn't even seemed to notice what was happening up top, and she wanted to keep it that way. They were all busy fighting; she could see Thor and Steve battling them, knocking and swinging left and right. Natasha positioned herself right outside the force field of the Cube.

"Right at the crown!" Selvig shouted. Natasha began pushing the scepter in, fighting against the pure energy force field that wanted to keep her out.

"I can close it," she said. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

Grace realized that she didn't have her earpiece. Her hand shot up to her ear, and she looked around. Fuck, she'd lost it.

"I lost my earpiece! What are they saying?" she shouted to Natasha.

"Cap just said to do it, but Tony's got a nuclear bomb coming in, and he's going to put it in the portal!" the redhead shouted back.

"He's what?" Grace cried.

"It's the only way!" Natasha screamed over the sounds of the fighting. Grace's heart stopped for the second time that day. Panic overwhelmed her. Tony.

* * *

As Tony grabbed the nuke and began flying up with it, his heart was racing. He had limited time, and he needed to get it the fuck out of there or else it would explode and kill innocent civilians. First of all, though, it would kill him.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip," Rogers said into his helmet. _Thanks, Captain Obvious_, Tony thought snarkily, but he didn't say that.

"Save the rest for the turn, J," he said, completely ignoring the captain.

"Sir, shall I privately connect you to Agent Marks's earpiece?" Jarvis asked. Tony swallowed hard.

"Might as well," he replied, attempting to sound casual and nonchalant about the whole ordeal. Grace. The photo ID that came up as Jarvis attempted to privately connect to Grace's line was a picture he'd taken several months ago. She'd been cooking in the kitchen and dancing around to "Mr. Brightside," her favorite song. She'd even coerced him into getting up and dancing with her. He'd done it because he loved this silly side of her no one got to see. When the song had ended, she'd leaned against the counter of the island in the middle of the kitchen, smiling brightly at him, and he'd pulled his phone out and snapped the picture of her. She looked happy and relaxed, bright and sunny. He glanced at the picture and swallowed hard again. Grace.

* * *

Grace stood frozen on the top of the Stark Tower as she saw Tony approaching. Right when it looked like he was about to crash into the Tower, he jerked upwards and soared up towards the portal. Her eyes were wide, and her face was blank, but she felt an overwhelming mixture of a thousand different emotions. He was going higher and higher, up and up, and she couldn't breathe as she watched him fly towards the blackness that waited for him. Then he was in the portal, swallowed by the blackness. She couldn't see him, but she could feel him. God, she could feel him, and that was the only connection that she had to him at that moment.

* * *

Tony was through the portal, and he was relieved. He'd gotten the nuke out of there in time. Manhattan wasn't going to become the new Hiroshima. However, his relief was short lived as his suit powered down. He was too far away from Earth. He was out here in the middle of space, and he had no connection to anything. His eyes went wide, and he gasped in fear.

CONNECTION FAILED.

The red letters were clear to him, and he saw Grace's picture in front of him. He could see her amber eyes. He could see her smile. If he focused hard enough, he could feel her touch, soft and gentle against his skin. He could hear her whispering, "Anthony" in his ear. He couldn't breathe. There was no air. He was alone. It was so quiet up here in all this blackness. He couldn't even hear himself think. He couldn't breathe. He began to fall backwards, his dark brown eyes still wide as he watched the Chitauri spaceship blow up. He hadn't even realized that he'd released it. Closing his eyes, he gave into the overpowering fuzziness into his head. If he focused hard enough, he could see Grace's amber eyes. Those eyes. It was always her eyes.

* * *

Grace's eyes were glued to the portal. She sensed the explosion, the collision of the nuke against the spaceship. Eagerly, she waited for Tony to come back through the portal. She wasn't focused on anything around her; she didn't even know that the Chitauri worms and warriors had powered down, the life drained from them the second that the nuke had destroyed their mothership. Her muscles tense, she waited for Tony to return from that blackness. He _had _to return from that blackness.

"Come on, Stark," Natasha murmured. Grace didn't say anything, her eyes peeled for any sign of him. With panic, she realized that she couldn't sense him. The feeling overwhelmed her and filled the back of her throat. The taste of panic was metallic, and it scorched her mouth.

"Captain ordered it closed," Natasha relayed out loud.

"Tony," Grace breathed. Suddenly, without warning, she leapt over the side of the building.

"Grace!" Natasha screamed. Selvig ran to the side and looked over.

"She's ok! She's fine!" he shouted back to her.

And she was.

Grace was swinging down the fire escape of the building. Leaping and catching the rails beneath her as she raced towards the ground, she couldn't think. Adrenaline pumped through her blood stream as if it were her blood itself. She wasn't acting on anything but pure instinct. Her feet found the ground, and she ran to where she could look up at the sky. Steve and Thor were standing still dead in their tracks as they looked upwards. They looked at her as she joined them, panic bouncing around in her bones but blankness written on her face.

The portal was closing, and for a second, she thought she'd lost him to space. Then at the last minute, she saw a tiny figure of red falling through the air. But that was the key word: falling. He wasn't flying. He was falling.

"Son of a gun," Steve murmured.

"He's lost power on his suit. He's not flying," Grace barked out, an edge of panic entering her voice. Steve's blue eyes were filled with alarm as he realized what Grace was saying.

"He's not slowing down," Thor agreed. He began swinging his hammer, signaling that he was going to fly up and get Tony. Grace pressed her hands to her mouth to keep the emotions from bubbling out. Oh, God, he wasn't slowing down. He was falling, hurtling towards Earth. There was no way he'd survive if he hit the ground at this speed.

Out of nowhere, the Hulk snatched Tony out of the sky and grabbed onto a building to slow their descent. Tony flopped limply in the monster's arms as if he were a ragdoll, not a human being. Grace blinked, a tiny bit of relief entering her system as she realized that Tony wouldn't be smashed into a thousand pieces from the height and speed of the fall. The Hulk leapt towards them, smashing into a car and falling down onto the concrete. He slid to a stop and then threw Tony to the ground.

Without a second thought, Grace ran. Her instinct drew her to him. She ran even faster than she had to take the blast that would've hit Tony just moments ago. She reached him seconds before Thor and Steve did, turning him over onto his back and ripping off his faceplate as soon as she got to him. His eyes were closed, and her heart stopped for the millionth time that day. He was completely limp and unconscious, unresponsive.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked. Grace didn't answer, the panic in her chest reaching a brand new level that she'd never felt before. She couldn't save herself, and she couldn't save Tony. The realization hit her squarely across the face, almost physically painful. Her chest was tight.

"Tony?" she called out. "Tony? Come on, answer me. Tony, _answer me_." She reached out and touched his arc reactor, her hands shaking violently. She no longer gave a shit about her emotionless expression as she stared down at the man who only moments ago had been so full of life. Her instincts weren't telling her to save herself; they were telling her to be with Tony.

"Tony, come on, wake up. Come back to me. Tony. _Tony. _You said you'd come back to me, ok? Do you hear me? You said you would. You promised, Tony. Tony, come back to me." He gave no response. Her hands were shaking so hard she could barely move them, but she placed them on Tony's face. Tears were streaming down her face, pain radiating throughout her chest. Sobs began racking her shoulders.

"Oh, God…oh, God, Tony. Come back. _Come back to me_." A wave of nausea passed through her, and she was full out panicking, unable to breathe. The Hulk roared, and suddenly, Tony jerked and let out a shout of surprise.

As consciousness flooded Tony Stark, the first sight he was greeted by was Agent Grace Marks shaking uncontrollably and violently wiping tears off her face and away from her now-amber eyes. Oxygen filled his lungs as he breathed deeply, his eyes scanning over everyone. The Hulk roared again.

"Oh, God. Oh, God," Grace sobbed in relief, and she pressed her hands against her mouth as she sat back on her heels to give Tony space. He was back. He was back. Her instincts were never wrong, and this only proved it.

"What the hell?" he mumbled. "What just happened? Grace, honey, you're killing me. Please tell me nobody kissed me, and if anyone did, it was you," he breathed, gasping hard and enjoying the feeling of oxygen. Wow, he'd never appreciated oxygen more fully than he did right now.

"I thought you were dead," Grace said shakily, slowly pulling herself together. He noticed how her hands were still shaking, and he could only imagine the control she was placing over herself. He'd never seen her lose it like this; she was still choking on her own sobs as she tried to control herself.

"Not yet. Jesus, you make me feel like crying, too. Honey, I'm fine. I'm ok. What happened?" he asked gently, his voice soothing.

"We won," Steve breathed out softly. Tony sighed in relief.

"Alright, yay! Hurray! Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just…take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma?" He looked around them for an answer. Grace noticed Steve beaming from ear to ear, and she shakily let out a sigh and smiled down at Tony. "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."

"We're not finished yet," she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand again and sniffing.

"And then shawarma after," Tony confirmed. She let out a laugh and stood up, holding her hand out. He grabbed it and allowed her to pull him to a stand. Once he was steady on his feet, he gazed down at her. Her watery amber eyes looked back up at him, and he couldn't resist it any longer. He pulled her close to him, and he held her tight. She clenched him back hard in her arms and fought the urge to start crying again. Breathing in and out slowly and deeply, she kept her emotions relatively under control.

"I love you," she whispered harshly into his ear, the emotions raw and hoarse in her voice.

"Jesus, Grace," he murmured back. "Goddammit, I love you so much." He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of her amidst the sweat and the dust that stuck to her. She was so familiar and so…so Grace-like. She was home to him. Nothing felt right unless she was there with him, and in that moment, he knew nothing had ever felt more right than it did just then.

"I told you I always come back to you," he said softly, and she smiled, a beacon of light in the middle of all this destruction.

Steve awkwardly cleared his throat, bringing the two back to Earth.

"We should probably go, um, get Loki," Grace said.

"Huh. Yeah. Come on, gang, let's go get Bug's Life," Tony announced. "Thor, you took hold of Cap. I'll take Grace. Hulk, you can handle getting up there on your own, can't you?"

The Hulk roared in what everyone assumed was a yes.

"Yo, Thor. Before we go, can you, uh, summon down some of that lightning and strike me a good one? You know. Charges the suit," Tony said with a shrug. Thor held his mighty hammer up towards the sky. Grace could feel the electricity crackle before it actually hit the hammer. With a great sweep of his arm, the blonde god directed it towards Tony, and it hit him. Sparks flew, and for a moment Grace thought that it was a bad idea, but she could hear the sound of the suit powering up. The long-haired god stopped and smiled smugly.

"Thanks, mighty one," Tony replied with a thumbs up. Having taken care of recharging Tony, Thor grabbed hold of Steve, who looked very uncomfortable at having to be held so closely to another man, but he looked away and pretended that he wasn't where he was. Thor's hammer spun as Thor summoned momentum, and away they went to the top of the Tower. Hulk leapt up the building, roaring as he went along. Tony looked down at Grace, tenderness filling his brown eyes and softening his face.

"You like shawarma?" he asked. Grace shrugged.

"Never had it," she said.

"Always a first time for everything," he replied with a wink, repeating her words back to her that she'd said only a day or so before. Or had it been two? He couldn't even remember how long ago it'd been because so much shit had happened between now and then. "Hold tight, Princess."

Grace squeezed her eyes shut and held tightly to Tony as he shot up into the sky. As much as she loathed flying, flying with Tony was the smoothest possible ride. She also trusted him more than anyone else, and she knew he wouldn't drop her, so she closely held her man of iron that she'd been so close to losing as they soared through the air to confront Loki.

There was no one on Earth she'd rather face an alien god with than with Tony Stark.


	15. Together

**Shoutouts to lcb117, bluemermaidpitch, Uruvia, MicroSpider, byakuya7309, MsRose91, and akt15 for reviews! Yay, guys!**

**Quick note: Credit to akt15 for suggesting Grace be on the roof of the Stark Tower to see Tony go through it. I meant to give cred in the last chapter, but I forgot to!**

**Alright, guys, one more chapter, and then we'll be onto the next story. Woohoo! I have thousands of ideas floating around my brain, so I'm super excited to put them in a story finally! I'll try to finish this story and start the new one tomorrow night, but I can't make any promises. I have a 4 hour night class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that's usually a long night, and I don't know if I'll be able to whip out two chapters in the same night :P**

**Warning: There is SMUT in this chapter. THERE IS A SHIT TON OF SMUT. Well, technically, it's one smut scene, but it's a long one. I'm surprised that I was able to get through almost the whole story without writing a deliciously explicit smut scene, so I figured I'd give y'all a nice long one for having waited so patiently for it. I'll have to change the rating to M after I publish this, but whatever :P**

**Please continue to review and let me know what you think of this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 15

Grace and Tony landed firmly on the roof of the Stark Tower.

"Sleeping Beauty's still passed out," Clint said with a smirk. Steve grinned despite the serious demeanor he'd been wanting to uphold. He gestured inwards with his head toward the knocked out god.

"Come on, let's go give him something to wake up to," he said. The team started walking inside. Tony had a tight grip on Grace's hand as he began to join everyone in the rest of what had been the living room when Grace pulled him to a stop. He turned back to face her. She had a perplexing look on her face, and she moved forward and placed her hands on his face and kissed him roughly. He grinned against her mouth as he kissed her back.

"I like this side of you, Agent Marks," he murmured into her lips.

"I'm not letting you go," she murmured back and pulled away. Her eyes were a calm amber, the black that had been summoned from her transition into survival mode had officially retreated, and she looked herself again. Her hand was still in his iron one, refusing to let go. She began walking to join the rest of the team, dragging him along behind her. For the first time in her whole entire life, Grace felt completely out of control of her emotions. She was always so conscious of how she presented herself and her feelings that being unable to control herself was terrifying and different. It didn't escape Tony's notice that her hands still slightly shook as she struggled to contain herself.

"Alright, everyone, position yourselves accordingly. When he wakes, we don't want to leave an opportunity for any surprises," Steve said as Grace and Tony entered their former living room.

"Good job redecorating the place, Dr. Banner," Grace said with a weak smile. The Hulk looked at her and growled, and she decided she probably shouldn't say anything else to him until he'd reverted back into actually being Dr. Banner. She took her place around Loki, standing right next to Tony. Reluctantly, she let go of his hand because she had to put work in front of her unstable emotions. She forced her face to go blank.

"He's waking up," she said. "I can sense it."

True to her word, the god began to wake up. He slowly stretched himself out with a groan and placed a hand on the counter to pull himself up. It was then that he seemed to notice he wasn't alone. Slowly, he turned to face the Avengers, his blue eyes wide with defeat. Clint pulled his arrow back in his bow, signaling that he and the rest of the team weren't fucking around. Loki's piercing blue eyes locked onto Tony's dark ones.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now," he said quietly and smoothly. Tony put his hand to his ear, not looking away from the criminally insane god.

"Fury, we have Loki in custody. If you wanna come get him, he's all yours," he said. Loki scanned over the rest of the team, taking in everyone as if he'd never seen them before. In a way, it really was as if he were seeing them for the very first time. When he'd been face to face with them initially, they hadn't exactly been a team. They'd been a poor semblance of a team who didn't know what the hell they were doing or what the hell they were up against. Now, however, they knew that they were a team. Grace could feel the connection between everyone, and she found comfort in it. She found comfort in knowing she wasn't alone.

* * *

Grace gasped sharply and let out a short cry of pain as Emma's careful hands touched the burn on her back. She squeezed her eyes tightly and pressed her elbows into her knees even harder as the nurse gently applied a balm to it. Tony was nearby, but he couldn't touch her to comfort her; he was being treated for minor cuts. He heard Grace cry out in pain, and it killed him that he couldn't be next to her. His dark brown eyes shot over to her, and he impatiently drummed his fingers against his thigh.

"It's only a few cuts. Can I go?" he asked irritably. Nurses and medics were all over his former living room as they treated various members of the team for their injuries. Emma's first patient had been Steve. He'd obtained a few cuts in the battle, but there was nothing major wrong with him. One medic was working on Thor to bandage up a wound in his side, Natasha had a tiny cut on her forehead, Clint basically had nothing wrong with him and was in the clear, and Dr. Banner—he'd shrunk back down to human size—was completely unscathed. Grace was the most seriously injured of the bunch with her burn and her Hulk wound having been reopened, and her wounds weren't even terribly lethal. It was a minor burn and a minor cut, but they both hurt like hell.

She'd regained control over her emotions, and she wore her typically expressionless face as Emma treated her burn, but her cry of pain had told Tony that she wasn't as blank as she wanted everyone to think she was. He hated how she thought she always had to act so strong and invincible when she was just as human as he was. He glanced over at her and saw her gritting her teeth, her jaw tight. Without another second of hesitation, he pushed the nurse who was working on him away from him, and he crossed to his girlfriend. He knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on her knees. Her eyes snapped open, and her face softened considerably when she saw him in front of her.

"Hi," she said tensely with a forced smile on her face.

"Hurts like a bitch, huh?" he replied. She nodded with the same tight smile on her face. She winced as Emma applied the bandage. The cut on her face had been restitched and redressed, much to Grace's chagrin. The tape keeping the bandage in place was irritating her and making it impossible to really move her facial muscles.

"You're all good to go now, Agent," Emma said brightly. "It was a first degree burn, so you're totally fine. It'll hurt like hell for a while, but just keep applying this cream to it, and change the bandages, and you'll be as good as gold in no time. I know I say this every time you come into the hospital, but you're lucky. You really are. That blast should've killed you." The nurse tucked a blonde strand behind her ear and gazed at Tony. "Take care of her, ok?"

"You bet I will." He stared earnestly at Grace. "Now that Loki's been taken into custody by Fury for the next few days until they decide what to do with him, and everyone's been patched up, I say it's shawarma time. Hey, who wants food?"

Thor's hand immediately shot up in the air, followed by Clint and Natasha. Grace raised her hand, realizing just how hungry she was. Dr. Banner tentatively joined the rest of them, and Steve was the last one to raise his hand. He wasn't terribly thrilled because Emma was going to be caught taking care of medical paperwork for SHIELD, and he really didn't want to be away from her for very long. Nonetheless, he would join the team for shawarma, whatever the hell that was. His blue eyes locked onto Grace's amber ones, and he smiled at her with a tiny shrug of his shoulders. She shrugged back. What were they going to do now?

* * *

"Did you see me fly into the mouth of that worm and blast it to bits? It was incredible. Grace saw it. It was _incredible_, a work of art, I'm telling you," Tony said, his stomach rumbling as he waited for his food. The irony didn't escape him; he was sitting in a semi-destroyed shawarma restaurant that he'd helped saved from becoming completely destroyed, and the staff was still making food. As soon as the Avengers had walked through the door, the staff had immediately recognized them and scrambled together to serve them. This wasn't unusual for Tony because he was used to this kind of treatment, since he was a high name celebrity. Grace had even gotten used to it after having lived with him as his girlfriend for two years. The others were almost shy about the attention they were receiving, particularly Steve. The in control army captain had disappeared, and he was back to his bashful, overly polite self.

Grace settled in her chair, careful not to let the chair touch her burn, as she listened to everyone talking about the battle. She could smell the food cooking, and her stomach was grumbling loudly.

"But Natasha jumping up onto one of their jet skis and just owning it was incredible," Steve spoke up.

"Yeah, that was great, but I'm talking about me. I'm Iron Man," Tony said with an ambiguous look that didn't clear up whether he was joking or not.

"I'm just glad Loki's taken care of," Clint spoke up. "It's about time something was done about him. No offense, Thor." Thor held out his hand to signify that he held nothing against Clint for what he was saying.

"He fucked with each of us in his own way," Bruce said, speaking for the first time since he'd ordered his glass of water at the table. Grace's eyes flicked over to him. She found the man incredibly interesting, and she very much wanted to talk to him privately whenever she could. She knew that Tony would be wanting to spend time with the brilliant scientist, too, and she would wait for her chance then. Perhaps he could teach her a little more about gamma radiation, and perhaps she'd find something useful from it.

"He left Grace and me alone," Steve pointed out. Natasha's green eyes narrowed, and she turned her attention to Grace. Her face was confused as she stared at her fellow agent.

"I wonder why he didn't do anything to you guys," she said quietly. Grace shrugged half-heartedly.

"The main point is that SHIELD has him, and they'll decide what to do next." Her voice was even and soft, almost inaudible as she spoke.

"You ok?" Tony asked her.

"Just hungry is all," she replied with a small smile.

"What even is shawarma?" Clint asked. Tony shrugged.

"I don't know. I just saw this place when I was fighting, and I thought it'd be good to try it. Shawarma. It sounds funny."

"All of your Midgardian food sounds funny," Thor replied with a smirk. He pointed to a menu in front of him. "Sandwich? We have nothing of the sort on Asgard. French fries…what are those?"

"Fried strips of potatoes," Grace explained. The blonde demigod gave her a look that told her he didn't know what potatoes were, and she laughed suddenly. "Oh, God, that wasn't funny. Why am I laughing? I can't even see straight. I'm starving."

"This place better be good, Stark," Steve said without a trace of animosity in his voice towards the billionaire for once. Tony flashed him a quick grin and a shrug.

"I think anything'll taste great right now."

Grace was a firm believer in perfect timing, and she was proven right by two waitresses appearing with trays of shawarma in their hands. Despite how talkative the team was, as soon as they had their food, they instantly shut up. Everyone ate hungrily, devouring the shawarma as if it were each person's favorite food. Grace had to admit that the food was good, even if she still wasn't entirely sure what it was. However, she couldn't be sure if she found the food delicious because she was starving or because it actually was good. The team ate in silence, slowing down as they became full. Well, at least everyone did but Thor; he ate heartily and eagerly even when he neared his limits.

Grace looked around her, chewing the rest of her food carefully. Tony's hand found its way to her knee, and his thumb lightly rubbed the black fabric of her uniform. He did it seemingly unconsciously, as if he hadn't even been aware of it, as if he were drawn to her. She reached down and put her hand on top of his. He looked at her, and he offered her a smile that made her feel ok again. Whatever was going to happen next, it would happen with the two of them together, and she couldn't have asked for anything better.

* * *

"Jesus Christ, this bed is amazing. In fact, I'm in love with this bed," Grace sighed as she leaned back into the soft pillows of the enormous bed she and Tony shared in the Stark Tower. As soon as she'd gotten back, she'd immediately gone to the bathroom to clean herself. Since she didn't want to mess up the bandages on her face or her back, she wet a washcloth with hot water and soap and cleaned herself up while Tony showered. When Tony had gotten out of the shower, he'd shampooed her hair for her in the sweetest, gentlest way. Sometimes it was hard to believe that two years ago, this guy who shampooed her hair for her when she couldn't had been stumbling around completely hammered at his own birthday party. She was now dressed in one of Tony's old Stark Industry t-shirts over a pair of underwear, feeling completely relaxed and clean.

Tony smirked at her as he climbed into the bed beside her. He was also wearing one of his old t-shirts, but his was an MIT shirt. The corners of her mouth tugged into a smile as she looked at him. She loved how he looked when he was comfortable, just like he was now. His old shirts were a godsend for the both of them, she thought, enjoying the soft feeling of the fabric against her skin.

"Uh, careful there. You're supposed to marry _me_, not the bed," he quipped casually. Grace glanced at him curiously with her strange, light eyes. She turned on her side towards him. He was still sitting up, not quite looking at her but straight ahead in front of him.

"You always talk about marrying me, but you still haven't proposed yet," she said with a grin. He looked at her and winked, not saying anything else on the topic. He had plans, plans that he wasn't going to tell her about, but he definitely had something up his sleeve. She could tell just by looking at him and seeing the way he squinted his eyes slightly as they sparkled with thoughts she wasn't allowed to know just yet.

"What do you think: our first visitors?" he asked, referring to the fact that the extra rooms of the Stark Tower were full of their teammates. Each member had his own room, all except for Clint and Natasha who chose to be together that night. Grace beamed at him.

"Couldn't ask for anyone better, I think," she replied. "You and Steve seemed to be getting along at dinner."

"Ugh, don't push it," he answered and rolled his eyes. "I mean, the guy isn't _that _bad, but we're not best friends or anything. But I respect him. I do."

"I knew you'd come around," she said, exhaling on a relaxed sigh.

"I hope that the temperature's ok for him. You know, not too warm," Tony said thoughtfully. Grace frowned in confusion.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Oh, you know…I'm sure he prefers colder temperatures," Tony said smartly. Grace's mouth dropped as she realized the dig he was making, but she laughed, reaching out in such a way that it didn't bother her back and smacking him on the arm.

"You're so bad," she said, giggles escaping her mouth. "Hey, come on. Let's go to sleep now."

She waited for him to lie down next to her, but he didn't. He continued to sit up, looking straight ahead. Pushing herself up onto her elbow, wincing as the movement made her burn hurt, she looked at him. She didn't have to even see his face to be able to sense that his mood had changed drastically in the second that it took for a heart to beat. His face was darker than it had been just a few seconds ago, and she knew he was no longer thinking about something pleasant. His forehead was wrinkled, and his brown eyes were almost black in reflection of the darkness of the room.

"You know, the thing I remember most was how dark it was," he said suddenly.

"What?" she asked, sitting up. He glanced at her and then looked forward again.

"The cave was dark. The only light in there came from the work lamps that they gave us to work by, and that was nowhere near enough light. They wanted me to build this incredibly destructive bomb in just a short matter of time, and they didn't give me the light that I needed to do it. I mean, I could've done it, but I needed to get out of there." His voice was soft, and Grace's breath caught in her throat as she realized what he was talking about. She sat up slowly, afraid that swift movement might startle him the way that it would a wild animal. She wasn't sure if it were ok to reach out and touch him, so she didn't. Instead, she sat still and listened.

"I don't need to tell you what the fear is like. How it consumes you, and your only thoughts are how the fuck are you going to get out of there alive. You know what that's like more than anyone else, and I hate that. The irony of it all was also horrifying, you know? The reason I woke up with a car battery attached to my chest was due to my own creation, only one of many creations that'd given my family its reputation and money. It just didn't make sense." He finally turned and looked at her." In that one look, Grace knew what to do. She carefully scooted closer to him and held her arms out open to him. Instinctively, he leaned towards her and put his head in her lap. Gently, she stroked his soft dark hair as his held settled against her legs. His thick hair was still slightly damp, and she ran her fingers through it as she comforted him. His breathing was slow and even, calm under her touch.

His chest swelled as he closed his eyes and allowed her to calm him down. As much as he'd always known that he should have, he'd never talked to anyone about his time over in Afghanistan. As soon as he'd been rescued, he'd made the resolution to never talk about it. The circle in his chest was evidence enough of what had happened over there, and that was enough for him. One memory was enough for him.

"I feel awful talking about it," he said. He felt like his chest was opening up, and it was almost hard for him to breathe, but he kept inhaling and exhaling.

"You don't have to," Grace said softly, her voice melodic and soothing. He sat up, removing himself from her touch and wishing that he hadn't. He craved the feel of her hands on him as soon as he broke contact.

"No, no, no," he protested. "I feel awful talking about it because I wasn't even there for that long. You were in South America for two fucking years. I have no right to sit here and talk about what happened to me when you went through it so much longer than I did. My time was nothing compared to yours."

Her hands were on the side of his face, her fingers gripping his hair, as she stared hard at him. Her amber eyes were locked onto his own deep brown eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was thick with emotion.

"Don't devalue what happened to you," she said roughly. "You have every right to talk about it to me because it happened. There's no changing that, and there's no reason that it should be any less important because it wasn't as long as the time I was in South America."

He put his hands up to hers as they held his face, and he kept them still there. He gazed back at her before turning his head to the side and kissing the palm of her hand. His bread tickled her hand, and she smiled through the tears that had somehow managed to fill her amber eyes.

"I love you," he murmured, the vibrations of his voice making the sensitive skin of her hand tingle. Her heart broke as she watched him close his eyes and squeeze them shut as if by closing his eyes, his memories and thoughts would disappear. She leaned forward and fervently kissed him, wanting to take away all the pain that was etched into his face.

"I thought I'd lost you today," she whispered, her voice breaking as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. He opened his eyes and shook his head, pulling her back to him and kissing her as if his life depended on it. A deep hunger began building up deep down in his solar plexus, and he gripped her more tightly.

In a flash, she had settled easily onto his lap, straddling him and kissing him more passionately. Her tongue darted into his mouth, the taste of her consuming him and making him want her more. He flexed his hips against her, desperate for any kind of friction. A quiet moan from her throat rolled onto his tongue as she relished in the sensation of him grinding against her. He tightly grabbed her hips and thrust urgently between her splayed legs. Even after everything he'd been through that day, especially dying, his painfully hard erection showed that he wasn't that tired just yet.

His lips wandered to her collarbone, kissing, licking, and lightly nipping her sensitive skin. Her breathing grew heavier as the feeling of him pressing hard between her legs contrasted with the softness of his lips on her. She put her hands beneath his shirt and pulled it upwards to signal that she wanted it off of him. He lifted his arms, aching at the absence of her skin on his.

"Stand up," she whispered, her voice coming out in a rush. Perplexed but not willing to take the time to ask why, he stood up. Her hands gently brushed over his chest around his arc reactor, carefully skimming the metal of the object that kept him alive. Her hands hooked onto the elastic band of his boxers, and she pushed them down. Tony's breath caught as she pressed her lips against his chest, right by the arc reactor, the feeling of it overwhelming him with a new kind of lust. His eyes were wide as he watched her sink to her knees, and he realized what she was going to do. Quickly, he sat down again on the edge of the bed, watching her intently as she wrapped a hand around his large member and took it in her mouth. A strangled noise came from the back of his throat as she moved her mouth expertly up and down. One hand gripped the sheets around him tightly, and the other went gently to the back of her head, guiding her.

"Ah, Grace!" he groaned. "Jesus…ah…ah!"

Her tongue wrapped around the head of his penis, hot and wet, and he gasped out her name again. She continued moving her head up and down, taking him further and further into her mouth. He was always amazed at how she didn't have a gag reflex, but then again, he shouldn't have been surprised, seeing how she was a trained SHIELD agent.

He reached down and pulled her up to him, kissing her roughly and removing her shirt and underwear in one swift process. Grace grinned as he did so; he certainly hadn't earned his playboy status by not being able to remove clothing efficiently. He had that taken care of, for sure. He positioned her on her back against the sheets of the bed when he noticed the shock and pain in her eyes as she settled against the burn.

"Are you ok? Does that hurt?" he asked breathlessly. She shook her head quickly.

"No, no, no. I'm fine. It doesn't hurt anymore," she said and pulled his head back down to hers. He slipped his hand between her legs and pushed two fingers inside her. She sharply inhaled as his fingers moved in and out agonizingly slowly. Much to his delight, she was already wet. Neither he nor Grace were that big into foreplay; they were very direct people who liked to get right down to the point, and that included sex. He pulled his fingers out and very lightly circled her clit, causing her to moan against his neck.

He maneuvered himself so that he was between her thighs, and with one hand supporting his weight, he moved his free hand down between them to guide himself into her. With an easy thrust, he was inside her. The wet heat of her made him still as he acclimated himself to the feeling of her. Her hips arched against his, urging him to move. He pulled back, almost all the way out, and then he thrust roughly back into her. He was careful of her burn, but she didn't even seem to be thinking about that at the moment. She wrapped her legs tightly around him, pressing him deeper inside.

He began to really move, relishing in the sensations of it. The rush of her skin around him urged him on. His lips were all over her, her mouth, her neck, her shoulders. The salt of her skin was on his tongue, the taste of her on his lips. Her mouth found his, and her tongue delved deep into the wet cavern of his mouth. She moved beneath him, her hips rolling with his every thrust.

Grace gripped the muscles of his arms, running her hands over them, over his strong chest, around his neck, through his hair, everywhere. She couldn't get enough of him. He swiftly wrapped a strong arm beneath the small of her back and pulled her up so that he was sitting back on his knees, and she was straddling him. Her forehead rested against his shoulder as she moved herself over him, allowing him to stretch her and fill her. She felt the orgasm building up in her center with every move she made. His hips thrusted sharply upward, and she unraveled around him for the first time with a cry. He paused only briefly at the sensation of her orgasm, his eyes shutting for a quick second before he opened them and continued to move. His arms were wrapped firmly around her waist. He wanted her as tightly against her as he could get her. He wanted to live inside her forever, to have this connection with the woman he was so in love with it nearly brought him to tears.

As she rode out her orgasm, she began to move more slowly. She lifted and lowered herself agonizingly slowly. A low groan emitted from Tony's lips, and he put his mouth against her neck to quell the sound. His eyes squeezed shut as he fought for control. His hips undulated slowly beneath her, stimulating her once again. He didn't want to be so still, and he struggled to keep a lid on it. Grace could sense the force he was putting himself through, and she placed her lips along his jaw, her tongue tracing his skin.

"Let go, Tony," she whispered.

With a loud grunt and no questions asked, Tony pushed her roughly onto her back against the bed. His hips dug between her spread thighs, and his thrusts picked up pace, brutally driving into her. Her nails dug into his back, and her heels pressed into his finely toned ass, wanting him deeper and deeper inside her. She loved that he was letting go because she knew it was what he needed; it was what she needed, too, and she grabbed him to her.

"Oh, God," he groaned into her shoulder. "Oh…yes…Grace."

The orgasm was building up deep inside her again, and she spread her legs wide to allow him more access. He was big, and he was hitting that one sweet spot inside her repeatedly, over and over again. Her amber eyes were open, and she cried out as she climaxed again.

"Tony!" she cried, and with that, Tony's own orgasm began. He sharply thrust into her body five more times, and he stilled as the pleasure flooded his entire body. His dark brown eyes went wide, and he stared straight into Grace's amber eyes, the orgasm hitting him so intensely that a damp wetness found its way into his eyes. As his orgasm abated, his chest heaved up and down as he gasped for breath. His brown eyes were bright and glassy in the darkness of the room.

"Grace," he breathed, forming his lips into her name as if he were mumbling a prayer.

Grace clasped him to her as they both came down off their high. They stayed in each other's arms until Tony felt that he had enough control over his body to carefully pull out of her. As quickly as she could, Grace moved to the bathroom and cleaned herself up while Tony slowly pulled his shirt and boxers back on. Grace came back towards the bed, stopping only to put her own shirt and underwear on before climbing back in. Tony's arms were around her, carefully trying to avoid her burn.

"I'm so in love with you," he whispered hoarsely into her hair, letting the clean scent of her shampoo make him dizzy. He nuzzled against her neck lovingly and sweetly, enjoying how she cuddled back against him.

"The feeling's mutual, Mr. Stark," she said quietly. That familiar sentiment of being safe and protected settled deep into her bones as she relished the calming presence he brought with him.

"I always come back to you," he replied, and it was true. He did. Whether it was from a mission to go take down some terrorists, or whether it was through a hole in the atmosphere, Tony always came back to her. He made his promises, and he kept them, just as she did, and she loved him all the more for it. And she knew that whether she was fighting off an alien invasion or whether she was taken captive in South America, she would find her way back to him. Every single time.


	16. Damage

**Shoutouts to MicroSpider, bluemermaidpitch, MsRose91, and byakuya7309 for reviewing!**

**Ok, guys, this is it. The last chapter. Thank each and every one of you for following, favoriting, reading, and reviewing this story. It's honestly meant the world to me, and I can't stress it enough. It's been such an amazing time having you all on the journey with me =)**

**Yes, I will be writing an Iron Man 3 version with Tony and Grace. However, until the DVD comes out, I'll be writing a "between" story. It'll be called Finding Fossils, and it'll be in the Iron Man category under Comics. Finding Fossils will focus on Grace and Tony dealing with Grace's past because there are a lot of unanswered questions that I've been purposely avoiding about her history ;) Finding Fossils will take care of that, though!**

**Also, I'm considering writing a Budapest story...I know, kind of weird since so far I've only really written Iron Man fanfic. If there's any interest in my take on a Budapest story, please let me know via review or PM!**

**Again, my "between" story, if you're interested in following Grace and Tony's next chapter will be called Finding Fossils, and I'll have the first chapter posted TONIGHT, I promise. Thank y'all so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much for all of your support. You're the best 3 Feel free to Favorite/Follow me so you'll get updates whenever I post the new story and any future fics! Y'all mean the world to me! =)**

* * *

Chapter 16

Grace wasn't a stranger to loss. When she woke up the next morning, her back lightly touching Tony's, she was keenly aware of all the loss she had experienced in her life and how it had affected her thus far. Despite the fact that her mother was still alive, she considered the estrangement with her mother a loss. Her high school friends who had been gunned down the day that boy decided he couldn't it anymore. Her professor and colleagues in South America at the hand of drug lords who'd stumbled across them at the wrong place and the wrong time. Fellow agents that she'd grown close to over the years, only to be killed on a mission, or worse, a training exercise. Her father in a car crash in the arctic. Coulson when he'd thought he could take on Loki by himself. She'd lost all of these people in her life, and yet, the almost loss of Tony had hit her the deepest.

The human condition was something that rested heavily on Grace's mind a lot of the time when she allowed herself to think about it. All the people in the world who suffered or experienced hardships was unfathomable, and it weighed her brain down until she felt that she was going to fall through the floor under the weight of it all. There was a hopelessness that would always be there. Loss would always be there. Death would never go away, and it would always be around the corner waiting for her and the people she loved. But going through that hopelessness with Tony made it all seem less hopeless somehow.

Gingerly, she rolled over onto the opposite side so that she was facing Tony's back. It was a routine with them, a routine that she lived for every night and every morning. She would fall asleep with Tony's arms wrapped around her, and at some point in the middle of the night, they would come apart. She was ok with it; she wasn't a big fan of being held down when she was sleeping, and Tony knew that, so he never held her in such a way that made her feel trapped. He of all people understood that feeling. Whenever she woke up first, however, she would gently curl up around him and rub his back, enjoying the time that she had with him while he was unconscious and resting. It might've seemed creepy that Grace liked being around him when he was asleep, but it only signified to her that he trusted her enough to see his vulnerability. He trusted her.

* * *

Tony had slept without dreams. He usually had all kinds of crazy dreams, but he'd been so tired that he hadn't dreamt a single thing. Consciousness slowly seeped into his brain as he felt the familiar warmth of Grace curled up behind him, her hand gently rubbing his back. Even two years later, he loved the comfort that she gave him. She always knew whenever he needed it, and he loved her all the more for it. Carefully, he arched his back in a stretch and turned over onto his back. His head tilted to the side, and he sleepily looked at her. Goddamn, she was fucking beautiful even when she'd just woken up. Sure, she looked a little bit beaten up, but hey. That should say something about how beautiful she was if she could still look gorgeous with a cut on her face and bruises on her body.

"Good morning," he murmured softly.

"Clean up day," she whispered back. He grimaced and rubbed his face with his hand. In a rush, everything came back to him. New York. Loki. Chitauri. The portal. Deep down, a swell of panic rose, but he fought it down, surprised that it was even there in the first place. Panic? Why was he panicking? He was here in bed with the woman who held his heart, and he was safer than he'd ever been before. He swallowed hard, ignoring the churn deep in his stomach.

"Pep'll be calling," he said and slowly sat up. If muscles could creak, he felt that his muscles would be doing the same thing. "Jarvis, how many times has Pepper called?"

"Eight, sir," the artificial intelligence replied. Tony groaned and propped himself up on his hands as he leaned back.

"Only eight times? I'm surprised. How many voicemails sound frantic?"

"All of them, sir."

"That I'm not surprised about. Who's awake?"

"Dr. Banner and Agent Romanoff. Dr. Banner appears to want some coffee. Agent Romanoff is otherwise preoccupied."

Tony's eyebrows shot up at the speed of lightning, and he glanced over at Grace, who was still cuddled up in the blankets. She rolled her amber eyes at him and shook her head.

"Don't even say it," she said in a warning tone.

"Grace. Grace, honey, they're _boning_," Tony said, strongly emphasizing the last word. His dark brown eyes were alight with amusement. Relief washed over his body as the last of the panic melted away. Thinking about his fellow teammates having sex in his Tower was funny, and it made all of the bad thoughts he'd been thinking go away. For now.

"Tony, Natasha could be busy doing other things," she said, curling under the blankets even deeper.

"No way, man. The redheaded traitor and Katniss are boning right now. Ten bucks says it. Come on, you know I never lose a bet." He winked at her, and she rolled her eyes again.

"You're incorrigible," she said.

"I'm right, though." He leaned down to kiss her, but she quickly pulled the blankets over her head before he could get too close.

"Toothbrush. Now," she said firmly. With that, she threw the covers off and carefully eased out of the bed. Her face became a tight grimace of pain as the burn on her back smarted even more. Tony's instinct was to reach out and help her, but he didn't because he knew better. If Grace wanted help, she would ask for it, and she hadn't said a word about needing it. He watched her slowly stand up and painfully move off to the bathroom before getting up behind her to join her.

"How you feeling?" he asked casually.

"Like I got run over by a bus," she replied. "How about you?"

"Uh, more or less the same. Have you ever been run over a bus? You sound like you're talking from experience." Tony got his toothbrush and squeezed toothpaste on it, then turning and squeezing some onto Grace's own toothbrush. She paused for a moment, her amber eyes glistening as she thought back.

"Hmmm. I actually don't think I have. That awkward moment when I have to stop and think about it." She put the toothbrush in her mouth and began brushing. The two brushed their teeth in silence, another part of their morning routine whenever they were both available to do it together. Tony spat and rinsed his mouth.

"Jarvis, tell Dr. Banner that if he wants coffee, he can come out to the kitchen, and I'll try to make some," he said.

"Of course, sir," Jarvis replied.

Tony gently squeezed Grace on the shoulder and left. She always took a longer time to brush her teeth because she had to do it fucking perfectly. Of course she did. She was Agent Grace Marks. She did everything perfectly and efficiently to a tee. He strode out into the kitchen, trying not to think about the destruction that waited for him just the floor below. Grace had been right; today would be clean up day. All of New York would begin to pick up the rubble that'd been left behind from the battle between the Avengers and the Chitauri.

Tony began making the coffee, frowning as he did so. How was SHIELD going to cover this up? What were they going to say about Grace? So far, the public had only known Grace as his workshop assistant and then as his girlfriend. The public had no idea about Grace's true identity, and now he wondered if there were any way at all for SHIELD to cover for her; it wasn't as if they could come clean just now and say that Grace was really a trained assassin. If they did that, the whole country would wonder about what else the government was keeping from them, and that could lead to all kinds of messy things.

He breathed deeply and slowly to keep himself calm as he fixed the coffee. He'd never been one for making coffee; he usually had Jarvis or Dummy do it if Grace weren't around to make it, and she was pretty picky about how she liked her coffee. However, he'd learned to make it the way she did for whenever she was gone because even Jarvis couldn't quite match the quality that Grace made. Besides, making coffee only reminded him of her and how much he missed her. He grinned to himself as the coffee began to brew. Here he was at the coffee machine getting it started, acting like he was missing her, when she was just in the other room. She was here with him.

"Hey." A voice behind from made him turn around. He grinned at the sight of Bruce Banner, fresh and clean in some clothes of Tony's that miraculously fit him. The doctor was wearing his glasses, and he looked well-rested.

"I've got coffee going. Nothing like a good kick to start off the morning," Tony said as cheerfully as he could manage in the morning. Bruce tentatively took a few more steps into the kitchen. Tony gestured to him to sit down, and the doctor took his place on a bar stool that was placed at the island.

"Today's going to be interesting," he said.

"Yeah, considering how New York looks like it got turned upside down while doing a spin in hell," Tony replied. "How do you think SHIELD's going to handle this one?"

"By doing what they always do. Making up excuses," Bruce answered, a hint of bitterness creeping into his voice. "What's Grace going to do?"

"Good fucking question. I'm more of the celebrity type than she is so we'll see how SHIELD wants to cover for her. Her face is known basically all throughout the country, so they'll have a shit ton of explaining to do for the public." Tony crossed to the island and leaned against it on his elbows.

"There's a lot of explaining they need to do about everything," Bruce said quietly. Tony pulled three mugs out of one of the cabinets, one for him, one for Bruce, and one for Grace whenever she was finished brushing her teeth to death. He set them down on the counter and poured. He drank his black, but Grace liked hers with two creams and two sugars. He put both in and handed Bruce a cup of black.

"Sugar? Cream? Can't really tell what kind of coffee guy you are," he said apologetically with a shrug.

"One sugar, one cream," Bruce said. Tony tossed him the sugar and cream and sat down opposite of him at the island, gingerly sipping the hot drink and flinching when it was still too hot.

"You know, the worst part isn't even going to be cleaning up the physical damage to the city," Bruce said carefully.

"Yeah?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I mean, the city's gonna send in all kinds of people to clean up the debris on the streets, in the buildings, and all that. But it's the psychological shit that no one's gonna deal with, you know? All those people are gonna have to live the rest of their lives knowing that aliens exist and that they saw it. It's a mind fuck." Bruce took a sip of his coffee, not noticing how still Tony had become. The billionaire stared into his dark cup of coffee, the same color as his eyes, and he weighed the gravity of Bruce's words. The man had a point. No one would be able to erase the aliens. No one would be able to erase the feeling of panic and desperation he'd felt as he'd realized his suit had shut down, and he was falling, alone and disconnected from everything. The rise of panic began again, and his breathing was growing heavy, and he quickly brought his mug up to his lips. The coffee was scorching hot, but the burn of it on his tongue distracted his mind.

"Hey," Grace said, appearing in the doorway. She was wearing black jeans and a loose white t-shirt with a deep purple cardigan pulled over it.

Tony's eyes flicked towards her, and Bruce turned to smile at her and greet her. Her amber eyes looked at him, and he saw that she knew something was wrong with him. Who was he kidding? He could never hide anything from her, no matter how hard he tried. She would always be able to reach into his soul and pull out what he tried so hard to keep hidden away under the thick layers he'd placed over it. She crossed to him and snaked an arm around his waist, the other reaching for the cup of coffee that she saw he'd made her.

"How's that burn, Agent?" Bruce asked. She smiled thinly at him, not revealing how badly it really hurt.

"It's ok. Thankfully, it'll be all healed up within the next few days. It'll just hurt like a bitch until then." She shrugged nonchalantly, brushing it off. "Are you ok?" She glanced at Tony. He nodded shortly and abruptly.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine," he said, feeling her gentle curves against his body. She was there. She was there, and he wasn't anywhere else in the world but there with her. He wasn't in the portal. He shook his thoughts off with a shrug; he was only feeling a little antsy because it'd just happened yesterday. He'd be fine in a few days. He looked down at Grace and smiled, planting a kiss on her temple.

Grace was with him, and they would be focusing on what they were going to do next, not on what had happened in the battle. She was with him, and that was all he wanted to focus on for the moment. She was there, and he wasn't in the wormhole. Her hand began gently rubbing his back, and he briefly closed his eyes. He was ok. Everything would be ok.

"Agent Marks, Director Fury is on the line for you," Jarvis spoke up, breaking Tony's erratic thoughts. Grace's attention was pulled away from the dark-haired billionaire, and she grinned.

"Well, boys, looks like we're back in business. Jarvis, tell Director Fury that I'll be with him momentarily. I'm going to the bedroom where I can speak privately with him. I'll be back." She gave Tony's lower back and extra rub, and she turned around, heading back to the bedroom. As he watched her walk, he saw her grow the slightest bit longer as she always did whenever she was handling business. Sure, they might've just finished fighting an alien invasion, but she was still acting the SHIELD agent. It was in her blood.

* * *

As it turned out, Loki was being sent back to Asgard with Thor, and they were taking the Tesseract back with them. Tony stood off to the side, surveying the two brothers as they twisted the handles on the case for the Tesseract, and they were transported back to their native planet. Grace was standing next to him, arms folded and her typical facial expression pasted firmly on. SHIELD still had a lot to take care of, but that was ok for now. They'd deal with it as they always did.

Tony looked down at the dark-haired agent and gestured with his head back towards the car. They were done for now, having just said goodbye to their teammate. They both walked back towards the car when Steve came over to them. His blue eyes were earnest as he held his hand out to Tony.

"It was a pleasure working with you, Stark," he said.

"I wouldn't exactly say the same about you, Captain, but you're a good guy. I can see why Grace respects you," Tony replied evenly and sincerely. A slow smile spread across Steve's face; that was the closest to a compliment that he'd get from Tony Stark, he figured, and he was going to take it while he could.

"Likewise," he replied. He turned towards Grace, suddenly unaware of how to say goodbye—for the moment—to the agent who was basically his best friend aside from Emma. Tentatively, he held his hand out, but she pushed it aside and hugged him. Tony awkwardly cleared his throat and examined the sky through his sunglasses as he pretended not to notice that he was feeling a tiny bit jealous.

"Take care of yourself, ok?" she said as she hugged him. "Be good to Emma. Don't worry, I'm not disappearing on you. You're not rid of me yet, Captain."

Steve smiled at her.

"Please, I know how to text," he said. Grace laughed and pulled back as Tony cleared his throat. She rolled her eyes discreetly at Steve, and he nodded with a grin, waving goodbye as he backed away from them.

"Hmm, long hug," Tony said suspiciously. She playfully hip-checked him, and he cracked a smile. "Banner! You're coming with us, right?"

Bruce turned towards the sound of Tony's voice and nodded as he took his bag from Natasha. He shook her hand goodbye and walked towards Grace and Tony. Grace made eye contact with her redheaded friend and made a "text me" gesture, to which Natasha nodded. Grace lifted her hand and waved at Clint, who returned the wave with a big smile. She wasn't feeling that she had to say goodbye to them. Definitely not. She knew that she'd be working with them again in the near future on a mission; they were always crossing paths one way or another at SHIELD Headquarters if not being paired up for a mission. She turned back to Tony and Dr. Banner who were now waiting for her.

"Ready, Princess?" Tony asked, holding out his hand for her. She took it and looked up at him, gazing into his dark eyes behind his sunglasses, and she smiled.

"Yeah. I'm ready." She squeezed his hand and closed her eyes, feeling the sunshine beating down on her. They were all going back to the Tower, and they were going to start working on repairs. Those were only just the beginning of the physical repairs, and they would be done in no time, knowing how quickly Tony got his shit taken care of. Having Banner to help with ideas and other bits of input would make everything move even more quickly.

Yes, the physical repairs would be done in less than two weeks' time; what she never could've guessed in a million years was how long the emotional repairs would take.


End file.
